


Zuko and the Phantoms

by rainyfridays



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Crack, Crying, Cute, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Funny, Gay Panic, Ghosts, Hurt Sokka (Avatar), Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, Julie and the phantoms - Freeform, Love, M/M, Sad, Sad and Happy, Singing, Sokka is dead, Sokka is in a band, Suki is a queen, Sunset Curve, They love each other, Zuko is in love with a ghost, sokka can sing, zukka - Freeform, zuko can sing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:20:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 45,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26973547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainyfridays/pseuds/rainyfridays
Summary: A year after the death of his mother, Zuko plays one of her old CDs in the garage. Suddenly, three ghosts appear in front of him. The three ghosts are a band from the 90s - The Sunset Curve.Julie and the Phantoms but make it Zukka, (actually, this is exactly the tv show but it’s Zukka)
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Bato/Hakoda (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Suki/Yue (Avatar), Ty Lee/Jet
Comments: 21
Kudos: 49





	1. Wake Up Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is going to be fun, believe me. But first let me tell you, who is playing who I hope yall watched the show bc it's going to be a little confusing if you didn't:  
> Sokka x Luke  
> Zuko x Julie  
> Suki x Alex  
> Yue x Willie  
> Haru x Reggie  
> Toph x Bobby  
> Mai x Flynn  
> Jet x Nick  
> Ty Lee x Carrie  
> Azula x Carlos  
> Ursa x Zukos mom (dead)  
> Katara x Sokkas Sister (but older)  
> Aang x Kataras husband  
> Hakoda x Sokkas dad  
> Iroh x Zukos uncle  
> Long Feng x Caleb  
> Please don't be confused, Topf is going to be Ty Lees mother in this because Toph is going to be older than the band. I could've picked young Lin or young Suyin but than I would have had to put in the other characters of Legend of Korra in this and I didn't want to do that because it's already a lot.

_Hollywood 1995_

Sokka was playing his guitar like his life depended on it. Playing his guitar and singing was like breathing for Sokka. He couldn't imagen a day without those things. It was a big night for Sunset Curve, they would be going to play in the Orpheum tonight and after that, Sokka hoped that they would be going to be unstoppable. After that he hoped that they would be going to be legends. 

They were currently rehearsing _Now or Never_ and Sokka couldn't stop grinning. They made it. Well, nearly made it. In just a few hours they would play at the Orpheum. Everything felt so unreal.

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAHbzV1CowI> _

Sokka looked at his bandmates, while he sang and they were totally feeling the same way. 

When they were done, the few people in the room were cheering for them and it already felt amazing. One girl was cleaning the tables in front of them but stopped to clap in her hands for them and she looked at them with a huge smile on her lips. She was, in fact, beautiful and Sokka couldn't stop grinning. They put their instruments away and grinned at each other.

"Yeah!" she shouted, laughing.

"Thank you, we're Sunset Curve!" Haru said into the microphone and winked at her.

"Too bad we wasted the tightest we've played on sound check!" Toph laughed and bumped her elbow against Sokkas. She took a few sips out of her water, while Sokka ran to the front of the stage in excitement.

"Wait until tonight, Toph, when this place gets packed with record execs," Sokka said not quiet believing that they were so close. _Just a few hours_ , he had to remind himself.

"Suki, you were smoking," Haru said to Suki who came to the front, while holding her drum sticks.

"Oh no. I was just warming up. You guys were the one on fire!" she said shyly and pointed the the other bandmembers.

"Could you own your awesomeness for once?" Haru asked and Sokka and Toph grinned at her.

She bit her lip grinning and started laughing. "Alright, I was killing it!"

That made all of them laugh and Sokka put his arm around he shoulder and winked at her. 

"Ok, well, I'm thinking we fuel up before the show. I'm thinking street dogs," Sokka suggested. And if he is going to be honest, he was starving.

Suki pointed with her drum sticks at him and smirked. "Yes!" she exclaimed and Haru agreed immediately. 

They left the stage and walked up to the table, were the girl was still standing.

"Hey Toph, where are you going?"

"I'm good! Vegetarian, I could never hurt an animal," she said and grinned at the girl.

"You guys are really good," she said sincerely, which made Sokka blush.

But he wasn't the only one even Suki and Haru had faint pink cheeks. They were all mesmerized by the beautiful girl.

"Thank you," was the only thing that Sokka could get out and leaned on Tophs shoulder for support.

"I see a lot of bands," she started and Sokka heard a light accent in her voice, maybe japanese. He wasn't sure. "Been in a couple myself. I was really feeling it."

"That's what we do this for. I'm Sokka, by the way," he said smirking at her and pushing Toph out of the way.

"Hi I'm Haru." 

"Suki."

"Toph."

"Nice meeting you guys," she said smiling. "I'm Ursa."

Haru took the opportunity and gave her a cd, that he was holding the whole time. "Oh, ... here's our demo and a T-Shirt. Size beautiful," he said smirking.

She held the T-Shirt up and smiled at them. It was too big, but it looked like, she doesn't care.

"Thanks, I'll make sure not to wipe the tables down with this one," she said laughing and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, good call. Whenever they get wet, they just kinda fall apart in your hands," Suki said and gestured to the T-Shirt in her hands.

"Don't you guys have to go get hot dogs?", Toph interrupted and stared at the other bandmates.

"Yeah, she had a hamburger for lunch." Sokka said and they parted ways. He waved at Ursa and winked at her one last time.

***

They sat down with their hot dogs in their hands and Sokka took a huge breath.

"Guys we're going to be legends. I can't even count how many bands have played here and ended up being huge!" Sokka said shaking his head. He was still in shock. 

"Eat up boys."

"Hey, asshole, I'm a girl," Suki said and digged her elbow in his left side, but he ignored her.

"After tonight everything changes." 

And indeed everything changed that night, because in the same night, Sokka, Suki and Haru died because of the hot dogs. They never had their gig at the Orpheum. 

***

_Hollywood 2020_

Zuko walked through the hallways of his school. He hated it here. There were so many people, _disgusting_ he thought.

By the time that he reached his locker, Mai was already there. 

"Hey, underachiever," she smirked and it made Zuko laugh.

"Hey, disappointment."

They talked about the music class and Zuko started to get annoyed. He sighed and rolled his eyes at Mai.

"Don't roll your eyes at me. Miss Harrison said, this is your last chance in participating in that class. She is going to kick you out, if you don’t do anything about it," she said sternly.

"I know, I was there," Zuko huffed and in that moment he was for the first time glad that he heard Ty Lees high voice in the hallway.

"Ugh. What is she handing out?", Mai said disgusted. 

"Desperation," Zuko said shaking his head.

She came to them with a fake smile and handed them some flyers. Something about a Sprite Rally and that she and her group of friends are going to perform there. Zuko didn't care and he was sure that Mai didn't either.

"I'm sure you guys have nothing better to do," she grinned at them.

"Oh my gosh, Ty Lee, Thanks!", Mai said sarcastically and gave her a big fake smile.

"Oh my gosh, Mai, don't bother coming," Ty Lee grinned back. This whole situation made Zuko roll his eyes.

Ty Lee walked away and her boyfriend Jet went after her. He looked at Zuko for a moment and smiled apologetically. Zuko smiled shyly back. He heard Mai gaging beside him and he looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"Jet. Really?" she said disappointed.

"What he is cute and hot," Zuko shrugged.

"And taken. Get your shit together," she mumbled.

***

The day was already bad enough, but his uncle had to make it worse. Zuko had to play a song on the piano in his music class, or he would get kicked out, but he just couldn't it reminded him to much of his mother and it still hurt. It still hurt to think about her. He loved her so much and she just died. So he didn't do it and left the class.

When she died Zukos whole life fell apart. He through nearly everything that reminded him of his mother away. Well, except for the things in the garage, he didn't dare to go even near it. 

But now uncle Iroh wanted him to clean up in there.

"She said if we're serious about selling the house, then she wants me to take some pictures, for the website. Which means we have to do a lot of cleaning and get rid of some stuff," he said nervously.

"And maybe you could, ... tackle your moms studio?" he asked hesitatingly.

And here he was in the garage, at night (after a few hours of just avoiding this moment and nearly having a mental breakdown). Well, more like studio. It wasn't dirty or something, but there were some things that he could through away. He hesitated at the piano and looked at it in sorrow.

"I'm sorry, mom," Zuko mumbled and walked away. He went upstairs and found a few instruments. Besides the guitars and drum sticks, there in the floor was a cd. It looked old and he didn't recognized the name of the band. _Sunset Curve._ It looked old. Zuko shrugged and picked it up, to put it in the cd player.

He sat down on the couch and the song started. It wasn't bad. It was after all rock music. (He was glade that it wasn't country.)

He caught himself bobbing his head to the music and smiled at the music player. It was pretty good actually. He started frowning, though, when he heard some people screaming. He held his hands above his ears and furrowed his eyebrows. _What the hell_ , he thought.

And then out of nowhere three people landed on the floor in front of him. He stood up in shook. His eyes were wide open as well as his mouth.

They panted heavily groaning in pain. Zuko just couldn’t believe his eyes, did he fell asleep? Is he dreaming? They stood up and looked around, confused. 

One of them looked directly at Zuko. "How did we get back here?"

He couldn't move for a second and then he started screaming. But they also started screaming and it was to much for Zuko, so he stood up and ran out of the garage.

He ran into his Uncle and his sister.

"Woah, did you saw a ghost?" he asked laughing and Zuko stared at him in shock.

"I have!" he said.

"Cool," Azula smirked, but he just shook his head. "Not fucking cool. Run!" he screamed and ran inside, into his room and closed his door.

He texted Mai, but she didn't answer him "Were the fuck are you, 911 means 911," he mumbled to himself and looked at his phone.

"Hey, are you alright?", someone said behind him and Zuko jumped caught off guard. He turned around to see his uncle smiling at him.

"Yeah no. You don't believe me do you?" Zuko asked and frowned.

His uncle sat on his bed and smiled warmly at him. "Nephew, of course I do. I sometimes see your mother too."

"This isn't like that," Zuko interrupted immediately.

"I know it is different for all of us," Iroh said and shook his head slowly, maybe even a little confused.

"Uncle you're not listening to me. I saw something out there!" Zuko said and gestured to the window.

"Alright, Ok. Ok," he said and sat himself on the floor beside Zuko. "I'm listening. Tell me what you saw. It's just you and me here."

"You just sound like Dr. Turner," Zuko said crossing his arms in front of him.

"Maybe seeing Dr. Turner again isn't such a bad idea."

And that was it. Zuko couldn't and wouldn't listen to him anymore. "Uncle! Can we just drop it" he said frustrated and he thankfully, did just drop the topic and left.

Zuko was curious now. He jumped up and went slowly downstairs. He was a little bit afraid, if he is being honest. But he wanted to know what the fuck was going on in the garage. So he walked to the door of his mothers studio (which was just the garage) and opened it slowly.

He looked inside and didn't see anyone. Maybe he just imagined it? Okay, no Zuko was not the person to go all crazy and imagen three people popping up in front of him, out of nowhere.

"Are you still here?" he asked and his voice shook a little bit.

"I know I saw something. I am not crazy!" he said and stood still.

"We're all a little bit crazy," someone said behind him and Zuko jumped and turned around, to see the three people again. And Zuko started screaming again.

The three people winced and one of them, a girl with brown reddish hair held her hands above her ears.

"Oh my god. Please stop screaming!" she said frustrated and the other two just looked confused and a little bit scared at Zuko.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my mothers studio?" Zuko asked. One of them started laughing and came dangerously close to Zuko.

"Your moms studio? This is _our_ studio. Trust me, my ...," started and crawled over the piano, when Zuko took the baseball bat that was laying on the floor in his hands and aimted it him.

"The grand piano is new, and ... and ... and ..." he started but interrupted himself when he saw the couch.

"My couch!" he said, sighed happily and threw himself on it. He looked around and saw the guitar beside the couch and sat himself up with a confused look on his face, eyebrows furrowed.

"That's definitely not my six-string," he said and jumped up looking around with a frown on his face.

"Can you give me just one second?" he asked Zuko, who just frowned in return.

"Just... give me a second. Thank you," he said while going to the other two.

Zuko was confused and frustrated. He didn't understand anything anymore. Is he a lost cause? Did he lost his mind?

While the three were talking, Zuko looked at them for the first time without panicking.

They looked like they came out of _2000_ music magazine. They all looked good. There was the girl with the bob and brown reddish hair. She was pretty and if Zuko were into girls, he would totally have a crush on her. Then there was the guy with long brown hair and a green bandana around his head. He was pretty too. But the guy with the ponytail, was handsome. He shook his head and frowned at his thoughts. 

He caught a few things form the conversation. Somethings like _'_ _He could be a witch.'_ or stuff like _'No he isn't, he is just scared. The fuck, witches aren't real.' 'Yeah that's what we also thought about ghosts!'_

"Okay, let someone with a softer touch handle this," the girl said and turned around with a nervous smile on her face.

"Why are you in our studio?" she asked not very ‚softly’ and looked straight into Zukos eyes.


	2. Wake Up Part 2

Zuko couldn't take it anymore. So he punched the girl with the baseball bat, but it went straight through her. Zuko gasped and backed away form her in shock. 

_What the fuck_ Zuko thought.

"Oh my god. How did you do that?" he asked confused.

"Clearly, you're not understanding ... He doesn't get it," she said and turned to the other two ghosts. "Ok, look. We're are ghosts, all right?" she said clearly frustated with Zuko.

"We're just three ghosts and we're really happy to be home. So thank you for the flowers. They really brighten up the room!"

She was pushed away from the guy with the ponytail and he smiled unsure at Zuko.

"We're in a band called Sunset Curve," he said but was interrupted by the guy with the long hair. "Tell your friends," he said and winked at Zuko, but Zuko ignored him, so did his friend.

"Last night was supposed to be a really big night for us," the handsome guy started. "It was gonna change our lives," he said and there was a lot of sadness in his voice.

Zuko didn't know what to say to that. He felt a little bit bad for them.

"I'm uh ... pretty sure it did," the girl mumbled.

Zuko shook his head with a confused look on his face. How did he end up here?

"This is freaking me out," he breathed sharply and took his phone out and started typing on it.

"What is that? What are you doing?" the guy with the ponytail asked and looked at the phone in confusion.

"It's my phone," Zuko said and then looked away with a forced smile. "No! Stop talking to them. They are not real," he reminded himself.

"There is no such thing as cute ghosts."

"Oh, you think we're cute?" the guy with the long hair said and smirked at Zuko, while he crossed his armes.

Zuko looked in disbelief to him and shook his head. He just ignored him and looked again to his phone. He felt like he was losing his mind. Because clearly ghost aren't real. _Right?_

The girl in the middle smiled at Zuko and looked at the display of the phone. "Who're you calling?"

"I'm googling Sunset Swerve," Zuko said furrowing his eyebrows.

 _Wasn't it obvious?_ Zuko thought. That's the first thing a normal human being would do. Google the ghosts, that allegedly are in a band called Sunset Curve.

"Sunset Curve!" they all said groaning in annoyance at Zuko.

Zuko just took a shaky breath and looked at his phone. There was an article about the band. But what he read was scaring him.

"Woah, there is a Sunset Curve," he said and looked from the picture, to the three ghosts.

"You did die," he said sympathetically. "But not last night."

They all just starred at Zuko confused with frowns on their faces.

"Twenty-Five years ago," he said not quiet believing his own words.

"What? No. No, no, no. T-That's impossible. After we floated out of the ambulance, all we did was go to that weird, dark room where Suki cried," the guy with the long hair said shaking his head.

The girl, Suki, looked in disbelief to the guy. "Well ... I don't think," she started to say in a high pitched voice looking from one boy to the other.

"I think we were all pretty upset. Ok," she sad laughing a little bit in embarrassment. 

The guy with the ponytail frowned. "But that was just for like an hour. We just showed up."

"Look, I'm just telling you what my phone says," Zuko said frustrated and showed them the article.

They all looked at the phone and their expressions went from confused to shocked. 

Zuko could kind of understand that they are shocked. It wasn't typical to find out, that you died twenty-five years ago. It was in fact, pretty weird. 

"See? You died in 1995. When you were 17. It's now 2020."

"So this is ... the future?" the girl breathed. "Wait. So ... So, it has been 25 years. I have been crying for 25 years? How is that possible?" she shrieked with a mad look on her face and looked at her bandmates.

The guy with the long hair held up his hands in defense and looked sympathetically at her.

"Well, you are a very emotional person." he tried, biting his lip.

"I am not!" she screamed and the poor guy flinched.

"Thought you are afraid to come out here," someone said and startled Zuko. 

Zuko flinched and looked at his sister, who just smirked at him.

"You talking to your ghost friend? How does he look? Is he hideous?" she said and crossed her armes in front of her, still grinning, while the three ghosts looked at her with raised eyebrows.

Suki laughed and looked at the guy with the long hair. "He can see you."

"No, he can't," Zuko said and looked at the three, while Azula looked around her confused.

"What?" she asked.

"Uh ... what do you want?" Zuko pressed and hoped that he didn't looked like a maniac.

"A normal brother, for starters. Stop being weird and come eat." she said annoyed and walked away.

"She couldn't see you."

"Yeah. I mean, that's ...usually how ghosts work," Suki said shrugging her shoulders and the guy with the long hair nodded in agreement.

Zuko just sighed and walked out of the studio, but before he reached the door, he turned around and looked at all three.

"Look, I'm very sorry for what happened to you guys, but this isn't your studio anymore. You have to leave!"

He turned around to leave, but stopped when the guy with the ponytail talked again. 

"But wait. We ...," he started and Zuko felt bad for being rude and kicking them out, but it wasn't their studio so it was his right to kick them out. He didn’t need them, because this was a problem and he didn’t needed another problem.

"We didn't get your name," he said and smiled hesitantly at Zuko.

"It's Zuko," he said and was ready to leave, but was again interrupted by the guy.

"Cool. I-Im Sokka, b-by the way. And this is-," he said and gestured to the guy with the long hair, but Zuko put the baseball bat up and aimed it again at Sokka, when he walked towards Zuko.

It was kind of stupid. Zuko knew that. It would go straight through him, but Sokka still backed off and held his hands up still smiling nervously.

"Haru, I'm Haru," he said grinning.

"And," Sokka said and laughed awkwardly and rubbed his neck.

"Suki. How's it going," she said and winked at Zuko.

Sokka made a hand move to his bandmates. "Ba-da," he mumbled cringing at his own voice.

Zuko looked confused at them and raised an eyebrow. He shrugged, because he didn't know what they still were doing here.

"Ok?" he said and finally walked away in annoyance.

***

They were at the dinner table, eating. Zukos mind wandered to the three ghosts, but he didn't mentioned them, because Uncle Iroh would call Dr. Turner. And Zuko didn't want that. He hated to talk about his feelings, especially with a therapist. He was fine, he was ok. That's what he is telling himself anyways. 

Azula was making fun of Zuko and told their uncle that he was talking to his ghost friend, but his uncle just laughed and shook his head at Azula. She dropped the topic and Zuko was thankful for that. While they were eating his other uncle, Piandao came into the house and lectured Zuko about something, that Zuko wasn't even listening to. Something about ripping a band-aid off. He didn't cared, so he didn't listen. He did listen though, when Piandao said, that he brought food for them.

As Zuko was biting into his spaghetti, the three ghosts went through the door and his eyes widend in shock.

Sokka smirked at Zuko and walked to him leaning down.

"Hey Zuko, I really like what you guys did with the place," he said smiling.

"You shouldn't be here!" he hissed at him.

"Oh, I'm just here to help, Zuko," Piandao said and patted his shoulder.

"Oh, ... I think that’s our cue to leave," Suki said to Sokka.

"I mean you should be at the gym," Zuko said and clenched his jaw, looking at the ghosts.

"Thanks for bringing us food though," he said and smiled at him.

"Now that you are no longer in the music program, you can concentrate on classes that matter," he said and Zuko groaned quietly and looked at the table.

His uncle folded his hands on the table and looked sadly at Zuko, even Azula was quiet and looked at her food in silence.

"You got the e-mail form the school, right?" he asked Iroh.

"Yeah ... We're still discussing it," Iroh huffed and looked Zuko straight into his eyes. 

When Piandao left, Azula tried to help Zuko out of the situation, but Iroh shook his head and told her to go to her room. Iroh looked disappointed at Zuko. Zuko didn't even noticed that the three ghost have left.

"Why didn't you tell me? You made me lie to your uncle," he said with a little bit annoyance in his voice, which made Zuko flinch.

"Sorry, I was gonna tell you after dinner," Zuko mumbled.

"Yeah, Mh-hm," he said not believing Zuko.

"I was," Zuko tried to defent himself, but it clearly didn't work.

"Nephew, I know those classes can be difficult, but you still like music don't you?" he asked and Zuko swallowed the lump in his throat. 

_Of course_ , he wanted to say. He loved music, but it just reminded him too much of his mother.

"I don't know. Maybe," he said and shrugged.

"We talked about this, you know? And how painful memories can be, but ... You know every time I see you and Azula, I see your mother. It's like she is right here with us," he said smiling sadly.

"But you know what, I love that. I do. And maybe if you give yourself a chance, you'll get there."

Zuko just starred at his uncle. He was right, Zuko knew that. But it was too soon. He was still to hurt, but he nodded slowly.

He was ripped put of his thoughts, when he heard loud music coming form the studio. His uncle frowned at the window and Azula came into the kitchen confused. Zuko jumped up, ready to leave, because he was sure, that the three ghosts had something to do with that. Obviously.

"What was that?" Azula asked.

"I must have left the stereo on in the garage," he said and ran to the door. "I'll go get it."

When he walked into the garage he furrowed his eyebrow at the sight. They were playing on their insturments and Zuko was confused. How did they get their insturments in here? Suki was on the drums, Haru played the bass guitare and Sokka played on an electrical guitare.

They were good, but Zuko was too annyoed with them to listen to them, because his family could hear them. 

That made Zuko halt in his place. _His family could hear them playing._

He stormed in fornt of them and looked mad at them. He was furious.

"Guys, Guys ... Guys, stop!" he shouted and clenched his fists.

"Enough, stop it! Cut it out!"

And they finally stopped. Zuko crossed his arms in front of him and raised an eyebrow, when they smiled innocently at him.

"The whole fucking neighborhood could hear you. I thought I told you to leave!"

"Wait. People can hear us play?" Sokka asked with wide eyes and the other two had the same expression on their faces.

"Yes! And so did my uncle and my sister!" Zuko hissed.

"W-Wait ... wait. So, only you can see us, but _everyone_ can hear us?" Suki asked in disbelief. "I mean, what kind of ghosts a we?"

"Who cares, Suki. People can hear us!" Sokka said excited and punched her in her arm.

"We might be dead, but our music isn't!" Haru said grinning and bumped his fist against Sukis, who just grinned in return.

That's the moment when his uncle came into the garage and raised an eyebrow at Zuko.

"Uncle!" he said nervously smiling.

"I just wanted to make sure, that you are ok," he said and looked around.

"Yeah I'm fine. I just had to turn off the CD player."

"Wait is this the junk, that was in the loft?" he asked and pointed at the instruments.

"Junk?" Sokka scoffed and frowned at Iroh, while he circled around the instruments, inspecting them.

"Some of the stuff is still in pretty good shape," he said thoughtfully.

"Maybe we could sell them," he suggested and smiled at Zuko, while he touched the drums.

"What? Yo, stop touching my drums. Tell him to stop touching my drums!" Suki shouted in frustration and looked at Zuko, clearly mad.

"I like the song you had on."

"Sweet! We're Sunset Curve," Sokka grinned. "Tell your friends," Haru continued and grinned at Iroh.

"It's just an old CD i found," Zuko brushed off.

"Well, still it's nice that you're listening to music," he said, smiling warmly at Zuko.

"Out here, you can play whatever you want, whenever you want."

Zuko smiled at that and nodded. 

"Oh wow, that's nice!" Haru said.

"Stay out of this!" Zuko hissed at him, shaking his head in disbelief.

Those ghost were to much for him, who the fuck did they thought they were? 

"I-I'm sorry, nephew. I didn't-" his uncle started, but Zuko interrupted him immediately. "Oh, no, no, no. Not you. I mean ... uhm."

Zuko groaned in frustration. He grabbed his the hair with his hands and brushed it with force out of his face. He wanted to rip his hair out. This was going to be a lot for him. 

"You know what, give me a minute," he sighed and grabbed his uncles arm to push him out of the studio.

"Hey, we'll figure out this music program thing," he said sternly and patted Zuko on his head.

"Thanks, Uncle," he mumbled embarrassed and sighed relieved, when he finally left. 

Zuko took a few breaths and tried think for a few seconds about his current situation. But this wasn't normal, there was no normal answer for this problem. Well, actually there was no answer at all.

"He likes our song," Sokka said grinning and Zuko just starred at him.

"Oh yeah. He doesn't count," Suki smiled but still looked a little bashful. "He is an uncle."

"Why can't you guys just be normal ghosts?" Zuko asked frustrated.

"Hang out in old mansion. I hear Pasadena's nice!" he shouted at them and stormed out groaning.

Zuko was mad and frustrated, why did this happen to him and not someone else? He was clearly the wrong person for this bullshit. He couldn't handle three ghosts, who were annoying. He was deep in his thoughts, when out of nowhere, Sokka jumped in front of him. Zuko screamed, backed away and frowned at the guy, when he finally caught his breath. 

"I'm sorry," Sokka started and walked towards Zuko, who just crossed his arms in front of him.

"What the fuck do you want?" he asked defeted, done with this whole situation.

"I know this is all completely insane, but you do know how rad this is?" he asked with excitement in his eyes.

He didn't wait for an answer and continued. "People, ... Actual People can hear us play!"

"Yeah, it's just ... I've just had a really, really awful day," Zuko sighed, tiredly.

"I gotta go," he mumbled and walked past Sokka.

"Well, I'm sorry you had a bad day, but three people just found out that they had a bad 25 years and then they found out that the one thing, _the one thing_ they lived for in the first place, they can still do," he said in frustation, shaking his head.

"That's pretty rad!" he said with a genuine but sad smile.

"You're right. ... It's just-" 

"Your bad day," Sokka said nodding.

They were silent for a few seconds just starring at each other. Zuko didn't know what to say anymore, he was tired and just wanted to sleep. He needed to think about a lot of things right now.

"Yeah. I know," Sokka said understandingly. "Look I'm sorry we came into your life," he said with a sour expression on his face.

"But ... what I just felt in there actually made me feel alive again."

That sentence hurt Zuko, he felt sorry for them. Really. But still, he didn't want to deal with this on top of everything else in his life.

"We all felt alive again. So you can kick us out if you want, but we're not giving music up. We can play again! That's a gift no musican would ever turn down."

And Zuko kind of understood. He loved music more than anything, but the memories hurt him too much. He looked at Sokka, understanding his feelings. He was right, Zuko thought. But he wouldn't say that out loud. Sokka sighed and shook his head.

"You gotta know that. Clearly, your mom is into music."

Zuko looked with a pained look into Sokkas eyes. "Was." he mumbled.

"She passed away," he said quietly and Sokka looked sadly at Zuko. His mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out. 

Zuko was ready to go, but Sokka finally found his voice again. "I am ... so sorry."

"Yeah, we didn't know," someone mumbled beside Zuko. He looked to his right and found Suki and Haru leaning on the stairways looking sympathetically at Zuko.

"It's alright," Zuko just sighed, shrugging.

They couldn't bring his mother back and it wasn't their fault, that she died. Zuko accepted her death, but it still pained him to think of her. Everyday he hoped that he would wake up from a bad dream and see his mother walking into his room, but she didn’t and he had to accept that. He did accept that, but he also can still be hurt, right?

"You guys haven't seen her anywhere, h-have you?" he asked quietly, trying to sound casual, but it didn’t work and his voice cracked. "From wherever you came from."

"Um, no. No, I mean, you're kind of the first person we've seen," Suki said sadly and Haru shook his head.

"Yeah, but she is not dead, so it doesn't answer her question," Haru said to Suki with a frown.

"Yeah I think she knows what we mean," Suki said rolling her eyes at Haru.

"I'm sorry for your loss," she said and Zuko nodded.

"Thanks. Sorry I got mad. You guys are kinda good," Zuko shrugged his shoulders, trying to change the topic and looked to Sokka.

"Kinda?" he asked offended. "You know that's like 25 years of rust just getting dusted of," he laughed a little.

"Yeah. Do you play the piano too?" Haru asked smiling at Zuko.

Zuko halted for a moment, but shook his head.

"No. No, I don't play. That was my moms stuff in there."

"No way. She's an amazing songwriter," Sokka said grinning and Zuko nodded with a faint smile.

"She was. Wait how would you know?" Zuko asked confused.

"There's a song on the piano. If it's hers ...," he said but stopped and looked into Zukos eyes.

Zuko was shocked by how blue they were.

"Your mom was really talented," he finally said and Zuko could just nod and look on the ground.

He walked a few steps to the door, but stopped himself and turned to the group. He sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"I guess ... If you need a place to stay, you can stay in there," he said smiling a little and gesturing to the studio.

They all started to grin at each other with hopeful eyes.

"There's a bathroom in the back and a couch that turns into a bed if you still use any of that stuff."

And they looked thankfully at Zuko. 

"Dibs on the shower!" Haru said immediately and held his hand up. "I just really like showers and sometimes the occasional bath."

Zuko grimaced and shook his head slowly. "This ...," he whispered.

"This is just too weird.“ he breathed out and gestured to the group.

He finally left them and went into his room. He needed sleep, a lot of sleep. 

He was on his phone, thinking about telling Mai about the ghosts. After several tries, he just stopped and sighed. She would probably also think, that he really needed to see Dr. Turner again. And he didn't want that. He wasn't crazy or anything. _Right?_ Zuko thought. He threw his phone on the bed and changed into is pajamas. 

He laid in his bed and looked at his ceiling, thinking about the ghosts. He still didn't know how this would work out, three ghost just living in his garage and only Zuko could see them? His head hurt from thinking about it. He changed his position and closed his eyes. He thought about his mother, than about the things that Sokka said. About the song on the piano, Zuko didn't knew of a song, that was by the piano. He was curious, but he shook his head. Maybe he would look at it tomorrow, he tought to himself. He changed his position again and looked out of the window. When he finally closed his eyes, he immediately fell asleep, thinking about blue eyes. 

***

While Zuko slept, the three ghosts beamed themselves to the Orpheum. 

"Why did you bring us here? Just another painful reminder of where we never got to play?" Suki asked with a raised eyebrow. "Thanks, Sokka!"

"I mean guys, the game isn't over yet. I'm telling you, we've been given a second chance!" he said excited, while they walked in the streets of Hollywood.

While Sokka talked about some clubs that they should visit, Suki bumped into someone. She was confused and looked after them.

"Hey!" she said frowning, the Person just turned around and nodded at her. 

Sokka called her and she shook her head still frowning. _What the fuck?_ She thought, but shook her head and walked after her friends.

***

The next day Zuko immediately walked to the garage before he had to head out to his school, still curious about the song, that Sokka talked about. He opened the door and walked inside. He looked around for the three ghosts, but nobody was there.

"Guys?" he asked and went slowly to the piano.

When nobody answered, he hesitantly sat down and opened the piano. He softly brushed his fingers down on the keys. He searched for the song, that Sokka mentioned and found it on top of the piano. He read the title and smiled a to himself. _Wake Up._ He looked at the notes and lyrics for a few seconds and bit his lip. He took a shaky breath and started to play the song on the piano. And fianlly without even realizing it, he also started singing.

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koCU43SpQVQ> _

Iroh forwned when he heard the piano in the garage, but a big smile spread on his lips, when he realized that it was Zuko singing. He took a few steps towards the studio, smiling.

Azula leaned on the belcony and closed her eyes smiling, she loved Zukos voice and it warmed her heart, hearing him sing again.

While Zuko sang, tears started to stream down his face. He closed his eyes and shook his head. His heart hurted singing the song, but at the same time he felt something like relieve. He finally could breath again. 

What Zuko didn't know though, was that the three ghost had also heard him sing. They all stood behind him with shocked looks on their faces. Sokka thought, that his voice was amazing and he was kind of confused though. Why did Zuko lie to him about not playing the piano and also why didn’t he mentioned that he could sing like an angle? 

A sob ripped him out of his thoughts. Zuko was crying.


	3. Bright

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to say, that Toph isn’t blind in this. She just has a bad eyesight in general. Because at some point she will see the three again, and well yeah she needs her eyesight for that. I hope you are okay with that.

Suki leaned forward to put her hand on Zukos shoulder, but before she could do that, Sokka pushed her back and shook his head sternly. He looked to Haru und then back to Suki gesturing with his hand, that they should go outside. They nodded half heartily and beamed themselves out of the studio.

Suki looked with a frown at Sokka. "Dude, why did you stop me? Zuko needs a hug."

"Suki, a ghost hug isn't the feel-good moment that you think it is. All right?" Sokka said and shrugged his shoulders. "Trust me. What Zuko needs right now is just a bit of privacy."

She snorted at that and raised an eyebrow at Sokka, not believing one word.

"You know what? I think you poofed us out because you can't handle when people cry," Suki said and shook her head.

Sokka gasped and widened his eyes, but before he could defend himself Suki stopped him. "I should know! I cried in a room for 25 years, and I didn't get a single hug from either of you," she said and pointed with her finger to Haru and then to Sokka with a mad look on her face.

Haru opened his arms and walked towards Suki with a smile on his lips.

"All right. Bring it in," he said smirking, but Suki huffed and put her arm up to block him.

"Don't touch me!" she said angrily. 

"This is why no one hugs you," he mumbled and looked away with a pout and Suki rolled her eyes at him.

"Ok. I think the first thing we should do, once we get the courage to go in there, is ask Zuko, why he lied about playing the piano," Sokka said with a nod.

"Yeah, you know, maybe tell him how amazing he is," Suki nodded with a small smile. 

"Yeah, course, bro," Haru said grinning. "She is legit. I got ghost bumps."

Sokka raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything a girl walked past them sobbing. She reminded him a little bit of Zuko. She was tall and had long black hair, _she looked kind of gloomy_ , Sokka thought.

They looked all confused to the girl, as she walked into the studio.

Sokka bit his lip, he didn't want to walk in there again seeing not only one but now two people crying. Sokka tried not to cringe at that, he could handle crying people, really. But sometimes people want space and that's what he wanted to give Zuko. But deep down he knew Suki was right, but he refused to believe that.

"Oh my god, was she crying too?" Suki gasped.

"Yes! And the only thing scarier than one person crying is two person crying!" Sokka breathed out and groaned, while shaking his head.

"He's right," Suki nodded.

"Guys, we definitely can't go in there!" Sokka said but it sounded more like begging.

"But, we can listen," Haru thought out loud and grinned at his idea.

They all shrugged and walked to the door of the studio. They stood on their tip toes to look through the small window above the door.

Sokka felt a little bit bad about eavesdropping, bur shook his head lightly and looked at the two people in the room.

"Azula said you'd be out here," the gloomy girl said. "We need to talk."

"Are you ok?" Zuko asked confused and looked at Mai with furrowed eyebrows.

"No, I'm not fucking ok! You just got kicked out of music!" she groaned and Zuko flinched.

"I've been up all night thinking about what I was gonna say. Might've drank seven sodas, but ... I need to get this out."

"Wait. I have something to tell you-" Zuko said but was immediately interrupted by Mai.

"No, it's my turn to talk," she said and Zuko sighed nodding at her.

"You can't give up music. Your music's like a gift, that would be a tragedy. So, you're basically, like, canceling Halloween and I love Halloween!" she said sternly and Zuko had never seen her being so upset.

"Mai, I-", Zuko chuckled but was again interrupted.

"Uh-Uh, no. When we were six, we promised to be in a stupid band together. Double Trouble," she said crossing her arms in front of her.

That name, was in fact, pretty stupid and Zuko didn't like it. 

"I never agreed to that name," Zuko said laughing a little.

"That's not the point Zuzu, if you leave the music program, we'd be apart forever," she said and Zuko thought that that was a little bit dramatic.

"That's just what happens," she exclaimed, but Zuko could just smirk at her.

If she would just listen to him, he could explain to her, that her fears are stupid.

"Sure, we'll see each other in the hall sometimes, but we'll have different lives, make new friends."

"That's not true," Zuko shook his head.

"You're right. I won't be making any new friends. And the only time we'll contact each other is when we'll be liking each other's posts on Instagram. Every time I'll be hitting that little heart, my heart will be breaking because my best friend left me, and ... ugh, do you have any soda? My head hurts." she said and grabbed her head, while squeezing her eyes shut.

 _Wow, and you say I'm fucking dramatic._ Zuko thought.

"Can I talk now?" he asked chuckling.

She rolled her eyes but nodded.

"I just played the piano and sang again." 

He eyes widened at that. "What? Why didn't you just say so?"

"I was trying, then your seven sodas kicked in," he said smirking.

"I'm so happy for you! And me."

"Look at you, looking all, I don't know, alive again," she said grinning.

"Right, it's like i drank seven soda," he laughed.

They smiled at each other but then Mai started to frown.

"What made you play again?"

Zuko sighed and looked at the song his mom wrote. He took the sheets into his hands and gave them to Mai.

"I found this song my mom wrote me," he mumbled.

"Woah," she breathed out stunned.

"Yeah, I was so afraid to play it. Anything involving music reminds me of her. And then i woke up this morning ... realizing that's why I should play it. To keep her memory alive."

She smiled sadly at Zuko and opened her arms. Zuko immediately put his arms around her and squeezed her tightly, but she gasped and he jumped away from her.

"We need to tell Miss Harrison you can play so you can stay in school and my life won't be that sad picture I just painted for you. My boy's back. Double Trouble lives again!" she said excited and both started to laugh.

"Not our band name," Zuko said shaking his head and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"I gave you a T-Shirt in 7th grade that says otherwise."

Mai grabbed his hand and pushed him to the door. Zuko grabbed his backpack, while Mai walked outside. Zuko closed the door and smiled lightly when he saw the three ghost standing outside. He ignored the fact that they tried to look casual and laughed a little bit.

"Oh, hey," he said smiling, but his eyes widened when he realized that Mai could see and hear him. 

"Let's hustle!" he said cringing at himself and ran towards Mai. 

He grabbed her hand and walked towards the gate, but turned around and waved at the ghosts still grinning.

"Don't worry we weren't listening," Haru grinned and received a kick to his knee from Sokka

The three walked inside of the studio, when Zuko was gone.

"I wonder why Zuko didn't tell us he could shred on the piano?" Haru asked and frowned a little bit.

"And sing. That boy can sing," Sokka said in disbelief.

"It probably has something to do with his mom. You know?" Suki said shrugging lightly. "Must've been hard."

"Anyway, I really feel for him,“ Suki said and went upstairs.

"Yeah, but ... now he's got music back in his life, just like us," Sokka said excited and went to the piano.

Suki snorted and looked over the railing. "Yeah, I'm not sure you can call what we have a life."

"Oh hey, some of the clothes we left behind are still up here," Suki said excited and through a plastic bag over the railing.

"Sweet!" Sokka exclaimed and stripped his jacket and T-Shirt off.

He immediately changed into a new tank top. He thought about Zuko, still not understanding the guy. He had so much talented and he was glad, that he finally sang again. He also was kind of cute, that's what Sokka thought anyways. He shook his head lighly and frowned, when he heard the door opening. Zukos uncle walked into the room, holding a camera. He walked straight through Haru. 

Haru looked stunned at the old man and groaned. "Woah, that was weird. But somehow I can tell this man has a kind heart."

"So, how have you been?" Zukos uncle asked and they all looked with raised eyebrows to the man.

"Honestly, not good," Haru said, which made Sokka roll his eyes. "So, we ate these hot dogs, and-"

"Zuko sang for the first time this morning," the man said with a sad smile. "He hadn't done that in almost a year. You would've loved it."

Sokka looked sadly at the man. _Almost a year._ He couldn't imagen not singing for almost a year. 

"Yeah, we saw cause we were ...," Haru started but gasped. "Oh!"

He put his hand in front of the man and and moved it back and forth. "Oh, I get it. He ... He's not talking to us."

That made Sokka groan and he shook his head. Haru wasn't the smartest guy, but he could play the bass like it was as easy as breathing air.

"You are so lucky you can play the bass," Sokka said in annoyance.

"Pretty sure, he's talking to Zukos mom," Suki said from above them, swinging her legs from the railing.

"He's such an amazing young man. Everyday he reminds me more and more of you," he sighed sadly and walked to the piano.

"Called it," Suki grinned.

"Oh ... I'm uh, I'm taking pictures for the real estate website. I don't really wanna move, but ...," he mumbled and looked pained.

Suki came downstairs and joined the two boys. Sokka felt bad for him. All three looked sadly at the man in front of them. It was like they could feel the pain and grief that the man was feeling. It was painful to watch him. 

"I guess it's best for Zuko," he shrugged.

"Move?" Sokka whispered in disbelief and leaned on the piano.

 _Move._ They couldn't move, no. Sokka just met Zuko and he was the only one seeing them. He couldn't just go away like that.

Also the man clearly didn’t want to move out.

"There's so many memories of Zuko playing next to you, and ... Azula trying to sing with her missing two front teeth," he chuckled sadly.

Sokka breathed shakily and put his hand to his mouth. He felt tears froming in his eyes and shook his head.

"Oh no, Sokka, not you to," Haro begged and shook his head lighly. 

But he started pouting and a sob escaped his lips, while Sokka tried to hold his sobs back in.

"He's talking about moving, but the poor guy, he ... he doesn't want to move," Sokka rasped out with tears in his eyes.

"Ok, how am I the emotional one?" Suki said in disbelief.

***

Haru wanted to visit his family, after that sad encounter with Zukos uncle, but instead of finding Harus home, there in front of them was a bike shop. The day got sadder and sadder. Sokka patted Harus shoulder and tried to calm the poor guy down. 

But Haru wasn't the only one that got sad news today, because Miss Harrison told Zuko that it was to late for him to stay in the music program and that he should just try it next semester again. Zukos shoulders slumped down. He was mad at himself. He was too late and it was his fault. Mai wrapped her arm around his shoulders and smiled sadly at him and they walked to their next class.

***

They looked at the bike shop in disbelief. But 25 years passed, they shouldn't be that shocked, that's at least what Suki told them.

"Why couldn't they have made mine a pizzaria or somehting?" Haru asked sadly.

"They tore the whole neighborhood down," Suki mumbled and looked at the new shops in front of them.

"I guess my folks are gone," Haru muttured.

"No. Everyone is gone," Suki said, while Sokka sat down on the floor. "Twenty-Five years, gone. Friends, family, Toph, everyone."

"Toph, that's right," Haru whispered realization hitting him.

Sokka nodded a little bit at that. Right, they totally forgot about their friend Toph. But his mind wandered again, to his family. Painful memories were floating through his mind and he squeezed his eyes shut. 

"I guess that vegetarian lucked out. What do you think happened to her?" Haru asked frowning.

"She probably got old like everyone else and moved on," Sokka said shrugging his shoulders.

"Dude, how are you so casual about all of this?" Suki asked in disbelief. "Don't you wanna figure out what happened?"

"Let's be real for a second. It's not like we were that close to our families," Sokka said defensiv. "My folks always regretted buying me that guitar. Haru, your parents were literally a fight away from a divorce. Suki, I ... Your parents were never cool again after you told them you were gay," he said frustated with both of his friends.

"Ok. None of us had it great," Suki said and hesitated for a moment, before she talked again. "All right? But at least we had something. You know, what do we have now?"

And Sokka knew that she was right, but he was too hurt and stubborn to tell her that. He wouldn't.

She looked to Sokka shaking her head and pointing with her finger at him. She was mad and he knew that, but he didn't care, he was mad too.

"And before you say cool teleporation skills, just know I'm not entirely ok with that either," she pointed out. "All right? It fucking tingles. ... In weird places."

There was a long silence. Sokka tried to ignored the last part and stood up, walking towards Suki.

"I'll tell you what we have," he said waiting for a response, but nobody said anything so he continued. "It's what we've had since the day we came together. Guys we have us! We're the only family we're ever gonna need. You know what else we have?"

"I'm gonna guess death breath," Haru deadpanned.

Suki nodded in agreement and Sokka chuckled at that.

"Our music, you idiot. We have our music, you guys," started and a rush of excitment went through his body.

"People, actual people, can hear us play!"

He looked towards his friends, but they didn't seem as excited as he was. Sokka took a breath and thought about his next words, he had to show them the postive sides of this situation.

"They can't see us, fine, but they can feel us. If i had my guitar, I'd play for all these people right know," Sokka said and pointed to the people on the beach. 

"Just like what we used to do down at the pier."

"They can't tip what they can't see," Suki mumbled, Sokka frowned at that and sighed.

"It's not about the tips, Suki. It's about playing music. Connecting with people. Making a diffrence in their day."

"I ... I just wished i had my guitar," Sokka said frustated and then out of nowhere, the guitar appeared in his hands.

He gasped, and looked with wide eyes at the guitar in his hands. He looked up to his friends. They looked baffled at him and then at the guitar.

"That was rad. How'd you do that?" Haru asked.

"I don't know. I-I mean, I wished for it and then it appeared in my hands."

Haru shut his eyes and there was a look of concentration on his face. 

"I-I-I wish I had a puppy," he said but nothing happened so he tried again. "Hamster? Pizza?"

He groaned when still nothing happened and kicked the sand below him.

"Hey, I think I know something that will cheer you up," Sokka grinned and started to play an upbeat tune on his gutair.

He looked skeptical at his friend and Suki sighed but smiled a little bit clapping her hands to the beat. "Come on, Haru."

"A one, two, three, four," Sokka sang, still grinning like a madman and Haru stood up and started singing.

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KAa0Ylc4uk> _

The people were listening and singing and dancing to their song. Sokka was happy, really happy. He couldn't quiet understand how that worked but he didn't care, because people could hear them singing! It was amazing, it felt like he was holding a breath, but now finally releasing it. He could tell, that Suki and Haru felt the same way.

He couldn't imagen a world without this, he _needed_ this. He needed people to listen to their music, it filled his heart with so much joy and love. And a little bit hope.

Maybe he could try and bring Zukos joy for music back. At least he could try. He set his mind nodded slightly to himself. He will try his best, because he wanted to hear Zuko sing again. Nobody should waste such a talent.

_And maybe some day he could sing for his family and they would realize that the band wasn't a stupid hobby._

***

When Zuko came back from school he was exhausted and just wanted to lay down in his bad and sulk for the rest of the day, maybe even get some sleep.

He was still pissed, that he missed his last chance in joining the music program. It was his own fault, he had to remind himself. He took a huge breath and went into his room, but jumped, stratled, when he saw the three ghosts in his bedroom. 

Sokka looked at a small white box, that was laying on a shelf. Well it was more like starring, probably hoping that it would open itself, when he starred at it long enough. That’s what Zuko thought anyways.

Suki tried to pick up a picutre, but it wasn't working, her hands went straight through it and she groaned quietly, clearly frustated. Haru was laying on Zukos bed and smirked up at him, when he saw Zuko.

"What the fuck are you guys doing in my room?"

"Uhh...," Haru and Suki shrieked.

"We were looking for the kitchen?" Sokka tried and smiled awkwardly.

"This... This can't happen. It's creepy!" Zuko said clearly mad and gestured to the three ghosts.

"Get off my bed, please," he said turning to Haru, he stood up immediately.

"Hey Zuko," Sokka said and he looked to him with a raised eyebrow.

"What's in the box?"

"That's off-limits," Zuko said sternly and Sokka chuckled awkwardly at that.

"Why? Are hiding something?" he joked.

"Oh a secret box full of butterflies and glitter?" Haru asked grinning.

"Oh, come on guys. I'm sorry about them," Suki said shaking her head at the boys.

"It's none of your business," Zuko hissed at Sokka. "And yes, there might be some glitter," he said narrowing his eyes at Haru.

Suki turned around and tried again to pick up the picture. "Hey!" she chuckled, when it worked and walked towards Sokka.

"I actually picked something up!" she said, but in the next moment the picture fell through her hands, onto the bed. "I dropped it."

Zuko looked at the picture and frowned a little. It was a picture of him and his mother by the little pond behind their house. They would always feed the little ducks there.

"Is that your mom?" Sokka asked and wanted to look at the picture, but Zuko picked it up. 

"Yes, and it's my favorite picture of us. So if you break it, I'll break you."

"Ok. Sorry, but we're kind of unbreakable at this point." Suki said, not looking that sorry.

"I don't get it. You guys can mess up my bed, pick up your instruments, but you can't pick up other stuff?" Zuko asked confused.

"I know, right? It's hard. But for some reason, our instruments, ... easy," Sokka said, shrugging.

"Yeah, like super easy," Haru nodded. "Oh, and check out what I learned today."

Zuko watched him patiently, but gasped when out of nowhere, his bass appeared in Harus hands.

"Yeah, that looked _super_ easy," Zuko snorted, while Haru groaned in pain.

"It's like I always thought, our instruments are attached to out souls," Sokka explained excited.

They were interrupted by Zukos uncle who checked on Zuko, asking him who he was talking to. He lied and told him, that the voices probably came from his laptop. With that he nodded and disappeared again.

Zuko told them, that they can't keep coming into the house talking to him, because to be honest he looked like a crazy person talking to himself all day. And his uncle was already pretty worried about him.

"He seems chill. You should just tell him about us," Sokka said smiling.

"You are kidding, right?" Zuko asked sternly and Sokkas smile disappeared.

"This past year, everyone's been watching over me, being super nice, as if they're waiting for me to snap. If I tell my uncle that I met a ghost band, I'll be back to talking to Dr. Truner three days a week."

Sokka clicked his tongue and looked sympathetically at Zuko. "You probably shouldn't tell him."

"Zuko," he started and walked again to the white box.

"Oh my god," Zuko groaned. "I thought I told you to leave that alone!"

"I know. You just shouldn't have said nothing cause now I can't stop thinking about it, so ... What's in the box, Zuko?" he pleaded.

"It's just my dream box, ok?" Zuko said finally giving up.

"Whenever I get a thought, I write it down and get it out of my mind."

"Like lyrics?"

Zuko sighed but nodded. "They would be if I still wrote music like I used to with my mom. Now it's just full of stuff that doesn't make me sad."

Sokka closed his mouth, seeing the painful look on Zukos face. He saw Suki standing up, in the corner of his eyes.

"But, I mean, you do play. We heard you this morning," she said with an encouraging smile.

"In the garage?" Zuko hissed and Sokka glared at Suki, slapping her arm.

"So you were there too?" he asked the two boys.

"Uh ... I don't ..." 

"Uh ... He was, like ..."

"We were ..."

"Somewhere," Haru finished.

Sokka ignored the two and laid down on his stomach on top of Zukos bed, and he grinned up at him. He put hand up to lean his cheek on it.

"So where is your kitchen, by the way?"

Zuko faked a grin and bent down to look Sokka straight into his eyes.

_So blue._

"Ok, we need to set some boundaries. For starters, stay out of my room!"

They jumped at Zukos stern voice and nodded immediately, all three rushing to the door.

"Mm-hmm. Crystal clear. Let's go," Sokka mumbled.

"We're leaving," Suki said.

Haru played a few strings on his bass. "Yes, sir! We are out of here."

Zuko took a deep breath and picked up the picture. He looked at it sadly, remembering the day the picture was taken, like it was just yesterday. He turned around when he heard Sukis voice. "Hey! Uhm sorry. I didn't mean to bother you. Did you get back into your music program?"

"No, no. I didn't."

She nodded sympathetically. "I'm sorry. That really sucks."

"Thanks," Zuko said, because he didn't know what else to say.

Suki sighed and looked to the ceiling. Zuko huffed and waited for something, but she didn't say anything.

"Is that it?"

She looked like she was thinking about something and opened her mouth, but closed it again.

"Yeah. Yeah," she smiled a little. "This is getting weird."

Zuko just waved his and waiting for her to leave. Zuko sighed again, when she finally left, shaking his head slightly, but he had a smile on his lips. 

_They weren't that bad._ He thought.

***

Later that day, Zuko walked into the living room, where his uncle and Azula were relaxing. Uncle Iroh showed him the pictures that he took that day, for the website. He felt his heart sinking. He didn't want to move, not after he just sang again. Not after meeting the ghosts. _Not after meeting Sokka._

He shook his head at that weird thought. He wasn't thinking straight, he was probably still just tired.

There was a picutre with three orbs in them. It was a picture of the studio and Azula said something about ghosts and got all excited, while Zuko bit his lip. He just hoped, that she wouldn't bother looking for them, but knowing her, Zuko knew that she would now search for them.

Zuko cleared his throat and looked at his uncle and told him that after thinking about it for a while, that he didn't want to move after all. Uncle Iroh sighed in relieve and told Zuko, that he also didn't want to move. 

_Oh._ Zuko thought and immediately felt bad. He realized that they would have moved, just because of Zuko, and that was just wrong. If they didn't want to move, they should've told Zuko so.

He was ripped out of his thoughts, when Azula told him, that she also didn't want to move. 

***

Zuko was in his pajamas, walking downstairs to make himself a peantbutter and jelly sandwich. He flinched and let out a manly scream, when he saw Sokka standing in front of an open fridge. Sokka turned to him and then back to the fridge. He looked with a sad expression inside and sighed deeply.

"I'm never gonna get used to that," Zuko grumbled and walked towards Sokka, well more like towards the fridge.

"Do you guys even eat?"

Sokka shook his head, but licked his lips and looked longingly at the food inside it.

Zuko started at his lips for a second, who is he kidding, it was more than a second. 

_They look perfect. Well, perfectly kissab-._

"I just wanna see what'cha got."

Zuko grabbed the jelly out of the fridge and closed it, chuckling slighly.

"Hey! You know how long it took me to open that?" Sokka said pouting and turned abound to Zuko.

"Sorry I don't believe in wasting power."

"Good. Because that is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about," he said sternly.

"Our power usage?" Zuko asked confused.

"What? No. The power that you have," he huffed out.

When Zuko raised his eyebrow, Sokka sighed. "Your voice. Your piano playing. Dude, you're like a human wrecking ball."

"Is this a pep talk?" Zuke snorted, while he started to make his sandwich.

"What I'm saying is that you have the power to move people. To knock them off their feet. And there is no way your teachers wouldn't let you back into school, if they heard you play like that."

"I asked her. She said I have to wait until next semester."

"That was your first mistake," Sokka frowned. "Asking," he huffed.

He sat on the kitchen conter and shook his head confused.

"Sunset Curve booked gigs by doing. We went into ambush mode. We played in front of clubs. We played in back of clubs. We even played book clubs," Sokka explained.

"Book clubs?" Zuko asked with a furrowed eyebrow.

"Yeah," Sokka sighed and laughed sadly. "We didn't get many gigs out of that one, but they did have some gnarly snacks."

Zuko smiled a little at that, but didn't said anything.

"I'm just saying don't ask for premission. Swing that wrecking ball of talent at your teachers head, and smash those stupid rules right outta their brains," Sokka said with excitment in his voice.

Zuko smiled at that, nobody ever, gave him that kind of a pep talk and it kind of encouraged him to do what Sokka said. He thought about it and the idea didn't sounded that bad. But it was just wishful thinking.

"This isn't a club, it's a school, and your plan sounds violent," Zuko said, but there was a tiny smile forming on his lips.

"It's a closed door and you gotta bust it open!"

He chuckled at his own words and jumped down from the counter, when Zuko walked to the fridge.

"Sorry. Once I start with the metaphors, I can't stop. I learned _that_ in book clubs," he smirked, but Zuko just rolled his eyes at the boy.

Zuko turned around and walked through Sokka. He halted and looked at Sokka, feeling a little bit dizzy. They starred into each others eyes, but said nothing. There was an unreadable expression on Sokkas face and then he laughed. Zuko just shook his head and turned around to finsh his sandwich, but Sokka still followed him.

"They're not just gonna get me back in."

"If getting back into music is what you want, then you gotta go for it. Learn from me. Your tainted hot dog could be right around the corner," he said and looked at the sandwich in Zukos hand.

Zuko widened his eyes and dropped the sandwich on the counter, sighing.

"I don't even have anything prepared."

"Thought you'd say that," Sokka grinned and grabbed a sheet from his pocked.

"It's called Bright."

"It's a Sunset Curve song I wrote that we never got to record. But it's perfect for your range. Check out the chorus for a second. If you add a bit of piano, I'm telling you...," he said excited, while Zuko read the lyrics.

Zuko snapped his his to Sokka, when he started singing the lyrics.

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ITOIi7chE> _

" _Your eyes, though the night, You and I, We will fight to shine together ... Bright forver_ ," he sang happily.

" _And rise through the night_ ," he continued and Zuko stared to sang with him. " _You and I, We will fight to shine together._ "

"And go up high," Sokka said and made a hand move upwards. 

" _Bright forever_ ," they hamonaized. 

"Yes!" Sokka laughed and Zuko joined him.

Zuko felt his heart pounding with excitment in his chest. He felt amazing and it felt kinda good to sing with Sokka. Freeing even.

"Thanks," Zuko smiled shyly and nodded, Sokka just returned the smile and bit his lip.

***

The next day Zuko walked into an empty music room, the only person in it was Mai playing badly on a trumpet. Zuko explained that he wanted to sing for Miss Harrison, but it was obviously to late for that. Mai just shook her head and told him to don't worry about that, because everyone was at the Spirt Rally. She told him, that she had a plan and they ran to the room were appreantly everyone else was. 

Ty Lee and her friends, Meng and Jin, were currently on the stage singing and dancing and Zuko thought that even watching them was exhausting him.

Miss Harrison and the school director were standing in the middle of the room annoncing some things. Mai just left him, without even telling him what her plan was she just said something like _‚Now is your chance’_ and he realized that she didn’t had one. _Stupid._ He thought.

"What are you waiting for? This is your time!" Haru said and pointed to the stage.

Zuko jumped and bit is tounge. He refused to ask them, why they were even here.

"Yeah. I mean you look really nervous. Like yack in bowl nervous," Suki said concerned.

"I just don't think I had enough time to work on the song."

Sokka sighed and shook his head. "I wouldn't have given you the song if I didn't think you were gonna rock it. Now, there's a piano on that stage with your name on it," he grinned and winked at Zuko.

Zuko heard Miss Harrison talking again and then ran behind the stage.

Zuko saw everyone leaving the room, while he walked hesitantly. to the piano. 

When he sat down in front of the piano, he looked up to see Mai, meeting her eyes. People were leaving.

He finally started playing, but stopped again, concerning thoughts rushing through his mind.

"You got this!" Sokka said sternly and Zuko took a deep breath, too calm himself down.

He started to play again and looked towards Sokka who just nodded with an encouraging smile.

He started to sing and forgot everthing around him.

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ITOIi7chE> _

Some people stopped and starred up at him, but he looked to the three ghosts. They smiled and nodded at him, giving him a few thumbs up.

Zuko catched himself smiling, while singing the song. It felt so good.

" _Through the night_ ," he sang and suddenly the three ghosts were with him on the stage, playing their insturments.

Zuko heard several gasps from the people in the room, but he didn't stop.

_They could see them._

Zuko took the microphone into is hand and started laughing walking around the three ghosts.

This was fucking amazing. This felt right. And for the first time in almost a year he felt fully alive again. Like this was meant to be. Singing on a stage with these three ghosts.

The people were cheering and dancing.

Zuko walked towards Sokka. "Uh, is this really happening?"

"Just go with it," Sokka rushed out and started to sing the next part.

He was stunned by how normal and peaceful Sokka looked and he had an amazing voice. Sokka winked at him, clearly enjoying this moment.

He saw Ty Lee looking pissed, and that made Zuko grin. 

_This felt like breathing._

At one point, Zuko walked through Sokka and he heard the audiance cheer again.

When the song ended and all four of them bowed down, the three ghosts dissapeared again, and some people gasped.

He saw Jet looking at his basketball teammates with confused expressions at each other, even Ty Lee and her friends were stunned in confusion.

He nervously swallowed the lump in his throat.

_Oh no._


	4. Flying Solo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I am not happy with this chapter, the last part got deleted and I nearly fucking cried, because it took me so long to write that part and i don‘t like how it turned out. It’s similar to the part that got deleted, but not as good as it. I still hope that you like it.

Everyone was watching Zuko with big eyes. Zuko shifted uncomfortably under their glances and felt himself blush.

He didn’t liked their attention, well not in this way anyway. He was totally fine singing for them, but this? Their starring? No, this was to much. Zuko was embarrassed und he felt himself panicking, when he heard the students whispering, asking what just happened and where the three people are now.

But before he could say anything (wrong) a guy, the one that announced all the acts, came onto the the stage and narrowed his eyes at Zuko.

„Hey, where‘d the rest of the band go?“he was clearly confused.

Zuko opened and closed his mouth, but nothing came out. He didn’t know what to say, but thank god a person, Jin, walked slightly towards the stage. „Wait. Were those holograms?“

Zuko nodded automatically and let the breath out, that he was holding back since the song ended.   
  
„Yes! Yes, they were holograms,“ he said and chuckled awkwardly, rubbing his neck.

„I plugged it into the ceiling projector before the show,“ Zuko pointed towards the beamer with a nod. „I‘d explain it, but it involves algorithms and science stuff,“ he trailed off and thank god, the students just cheered and applauded at that.

He saw Jet grinning at him and Zuko felt a warmth spreading into his cheeks and ears. He smiled softly at him, but shifted his gaze to Ty Lee. She was frowning and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

„That’s wild! They could see us when we were playing but not when the music ended,“ Sokka said grinning and looked at Suki and Haru.

Haru nodded enthusiastically and jumped on top of the stage. „We should double check.“ 

He was dancing, his back facing the students and shaking his ass, but he stopped when he realized that nobody saw him.

“Yeah ... I don’t think that they can see us.“

Sokka rolled his eyes, while Suki sighed in annoyance. „I wish I couldn’t see you,“ she mumbled under her breath.

“Ok, people. Show is over! Let’s get back to class,“ Zukos principal said and shooed the students out of the room.

Zuko heard Ty Lee complaining about Jin. „What was that? _Where those holograms?“_ she said in a mocking voice.

“Hey there. Hi. I’m Haru,“ he leaned into the space between Ty Lee and Jin, facing the latter one, but she didn’t acknowledged his presence or heard him talking.

Jin tried to apologize, but Ty Lee didn’t let her speak, interrupting her grimacing at the girl in front of her.

“Could I maybe call you some time? What’s your number?“ Haru still tried, while the two girls walked away.

Zuko climbed off the stage rushing to his teacher. „Miss Harrison, I’m so sorry for not asking for permission.“

He felt guilty about his actions, but he wouldn’t say that he wouldn’t entirely regret his decision. Sokka was right, and it felt good to sing on the stage, especially with him by his side, but still he didn’t think about the consequences of his actions and he could probably get suspended for what he just did.

“I just wanted to show you I belong here,“ he said guiltily, playing with his fingers nervously.

„As amazing as that was, your spot‘s already been filled by another student,“ she said and smiled sympathetically at Zuko.

She pointed to his left and saw a small boy, carrying a way to big cello. He walked the steps down, pulling the cello with him. Zuko winced every time, when the cello hit the floor.   
  
„Come on, that thing is way too big for him!“

“He‘ll grow into it,“ she said not quiet believing herself. „I wish that I could help you, but my hands are tied.“

Zuko sighed and looked on the floor. At least he tried. He could just wait until next semester, but it still hurt to know that he failed. He felt like he let Sokka and the others down, but he tried his best thats what matters, right?

A voice coming towards them, ripped him out of his thoughts, he looked up to see his principal smiling at him. 

„Mine aren’t, and as much as I didn’t approve of this little stunt that you pulled, I will not go down in history as the principal who kicked Zuko Sozin out of the music program.“

Zukos eyes widened in shock. „Thank you!“ he said grinning at the two people in front of him, like he won the lottery.

“But, when you win your fist Grammy, I want to be thanked,“ she said laughing slightly. 

„Definitely. Thank you!“

She left and he looked with a huge grin to Miss Harrison. She was also smiling and pulled him into a hug. „Congratulations,“ she shrieked excited. „Welcome back.“

She left and Zuko saw Mai. He started to grin and ran towards her. But she had a weird look on her face.

“Wow, you did it,“ she frowned.

“Thanks to you,“ Zuko said uncertainly and her frown deepened.

Zukos smiled disappeared. „Hey, you ok?“

„Uh... I’m great,“ she just shrugged and she pointed to the stage. „When did you start playing with a hologram band?“

“Oh, it was just one song. We’re not a band,“ he said reassuringly. „They’re a band, a hologram band. Definitely holograms,“ he rambled nervously.

She raised her eyebrows and nodded sharply. „Yeah, I saw.“ 

She looked disappointed though and Zuko felt his heart sinking.

“Why have you been keeping those cute people a secret?“

“There is a reason for that. It‘s just ... really crazy,“ Zuko said stumbling over his words.

She was mad at him. Maybe even a little bit jealous? Zuko wasn’t sure, but he hated, when she was mad at him. He couldn’t handle the fact that he did something wrong without knowing what exactly he did wrong.   
  
Memories of his father were filling his mind, but he pushed them away and focused on Mai.

“Oh, I’m all about crazy. Let’s hear it,“ she laughed, but it sounded bitter and Zuko winced at her voice. 

„Ok,“ he breathed out, thinking about his next words. He couldn’t tell her about the ghosts, no. „Um, so they’re... from sweden,“ he nodded at his own words.

She just starred at him, with a blank look on her face.

“Yeah. Turns out that they’re not only great at making meatballs, but also good at making music.“

She raised one eyebrow, but still didn’t say anything.

„Yeah, so they play there, I stream them here, we play together, they leave, then that’s it,“ he shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, waiting for her answer, but it never came so he tried to change the topic.

“Anyway, who’s excited that I’m back in the music program?“ an awkward smile forming on his lips, but it looked more like a grimace.

“Zuko, are you lying to me?“ she scoffed, putting her hands on her hips.

Zukos smile quickly disappeared, the guilt inside of him getting bigger. 

_Maybe he could tell her?_ More like should or he would lose her trust completely.

„Yeah. Yeah, I‘m lying,“ he frowned.

„Since when do we lie to each other?“ she said hurt.

“Mai. I’m sorry.“

She huffed, her eyebrows furrowed. „,I‘m sorry.‘? that’s all you’ve got?“

Zuko sighed but didn’t know how to respond. So he shut his mouth and looked guiltily to the floor, not meeting her eyes.

She scoffed again, and turned around to walk to the exit.

“Wait, Mai. Wait, no!“ he called after her, running after her, but she didn’t turn around.

He lost her in the halls, people stopping him telling him how cool his performance was, asking about the holograms, but his mind wandered to his best friend.

They finally left him, but then Jet walked up to him, and he forgot about Mai for a second.

“It’s true. That was insane!“ he exclaimed, but was interrupted by Ty Lee.

“It was way better than when you cried and ran out,“ she said grinning.

Jet looked apologizingly at Zuko and sighed. „Hey, uhm maybe we should ... get to science.“

“Uh yeah then maybe you can study the chemical properties of manner or something,“ Zuko deadpanned.

“Was that supposed to be a comeback?“ Ty Lee snickered. „Wow.“

“Wow yourself,“ Zuko hissed.

They left, but he still heard Jets next sentence. „Hey, that was kind of cold. You two used to be friends.“

Zuko walked around the next corner, but jumped scared, at the sight of the the ghosts.

„Zuko!“ they all three said happily, all Zuko could do was scream.

“You! Stop doing that! I’m serious,“ he told them looking sternly into the eyes of each one.

„Woah! This one‘s all on you. We were already here,“ Haru said defensively. „Well, actually, we were over there, and then we came over here,“ he pointed behind them and then to the floor under him.

„Are we not gonna talk about what just happened?“ Sokka said completely ignoring Haru.

“Yeah, the whole school saw you. It’s kinda freaking me out.“  
  
„Ok, good cause it’s kind of freaking me out too,“ Suki looked nervous. „You know, you could see us, and then people could see us whenever we play music. And my clothes are made of air, but for some reason, I’m still getting a wedgie,“ she rambled, getting out of breath. 

Zuko grimaced, so did Haru, scrunching his nose at Suki.

Suki inhaled sharply. „So many questions.“

„The important thing is that we rocked that place,“ Sokka said excited and looked with a huge grin to Zuko. „They were loving you!“

Zuko blushed and looked to the ground, not wanting him, to see his blush. 

„Are you kidding? They loved _us.“_ Zuko smiled, now looking at all three of them.

“That was a great song, Sokka. Thanks,“ Zuko looked genuine at Sokka and he grinned at Zuko.

“And did you guys see the cheerleaders looking at me?“ Haru exclaimed.

Zuko let out a laugh, and so did Sokka and Suki.

“I think they were looking at me,“ he looked panicked towards Sokka grabbing his arms, shaking him slightly. „Please tell me they were,“ he pleaded.

Sokka grabbed his face and smirked at him. „Bro, they were looking at you.“

Harus face lit up. „Oh, I knew!“

“I‘m so confused, you know,“ Suki said and looked at Zuko. He tilted his head to the side with a confused look on his face.

“The afterlife should come with instructions or a quick start guide or something.“

“Well, the good thing is that everyone thought you guys were holograms, and I got back into the program,“ Zuko sighed sadly.

“Why do you look so bummed?“ Haru asked frowning.

“Yeah, dude, you’re making this face,“ Sokka put a dramatic frown on his face and the other two joined him.

Zuko scoffed. „ _That_ is not my face.“

„Ehh...,“ Haru mumbled.

“It’s your face,“ Sokka muttered under his breath.

“Things just got weird between me and Mai,“ he sighed. „She asked about you guys, and I couldn’t say.“

“Sweet. Girls and boys are already talking about us,“ Haru grinned and gave Sokka a high five, winking at Zuko.

„Stop. I’m serious. I can’t tell her about you guys for the same reason I can’t tell my uncle. She‘ll think I’ve gone off the deep end,“ Zuko said frustrated and he saw the janitor walking past him.

“Well, this dude definitely thinks you’ve gone off the deep end,“ Haru snickered and the janitor shook his head at Zuko, looking at him sympathetically.

Zuko cringed and shook his head, groaning in frustration.

“I gotta get back to class,“ he walked passed the ghosts.

“Later, Zuko. Oh, Tell those cheerleaders I’m single,“ Haru called behind him, but Zuko ignored him, but still smiled rolling his eyes.

“Oh and that he’s dead!“ Suki called.

“Oh no, no! Leave that part out. Leave that...,“ Haru said panicked, but Zuko was already gone.

***

Back in the studio, Suki was pacing nervously, while the other two watched her.

“I think she’s practicing her model strut,“ Haru whispered.

“She’s so nervous, she’s almost making me nervous,“ Sokka looked concerned to Suki.

She stopped and looked at the two boys. „Ok, look, you guys know I don’t handle change well,“ she started and Sokka felt bad for her.

He knew her since they we’re toddlers. But he couldn’t change anything about their current situation. The only thing that is stopping him from panicking, is the fact that they could play music. 

He didn’t know how to help her, but he couldn’t see her like this anymore. 

„That was a change. Ok? Then we became ghosts. All right? Another fucking change. And... and now we can be seen whenever we play with Zuko,“ she took a big shaky breath. „Big fucking change!“

“Yeah, but, Suki, it was a good change,“ he tried. „With Zuko, we can play on stage again an be the band we never got to be.“

He looked from Haru to Suki nodding reassuringly at them, trying to convince them, that this wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened to them.

“Come on. I mean, you got be down for that.“

“Yeah, I mean, who wouldn’t be? I just,“ she trailed of with a soft groan, frustrated at herself.

“You know, I wanna figure out why.“

“Forget why,“ Sokka said confused and frowned up at her, standing up.

“Man, I say we invite Zuko to join Sunset Curve,“ he grinned at them, loving his idea.

He loved to sing with Zuko, so why stop? This was a great idea in Sokkas mind. 

He saw Haru standing up, nodding at Sokka. „Yeah, totally. I mean, like think about it. With a new lead singer, this band would be legendary.“

“Hey!“ Sokka said offended, looking at Haru, slightly pouting.

 _That hurt._ He thought.

„I’m our lead singer.“

Haru snorted and shrugged. „Dude, that boy has the voice of an angle, and he can make us visible. Without him we‘re just like elevator music.“

“You don‘t gotta be so mean about it.“ Sokka pouted and turned around to face Suki again, she was pacing again. „And we‘re on the runway again.“

“Ok. I‘m sorry, all right? I just,“ she started and then walked towards the door. „I gotta go clear my head.“

She tried to reach out for the doorknob but her hand went right through it. 

„Dude, you are a ghost. Just poof out,“ Haru said.

“Don‘t Tell me how to ghost!“ she shrieked and pouted, but beamed herself out anyway.

***

Suki walked on the walk of fame watching the people go on with their lifes.

She was a little bit jealous, but mostly just tired. Tired of this situation. Why couldn’t they just die and stay dead, like normal dead people? 

She was deep in her thoughts when someone bumped into her. She struggled to stay on her feet and fell on the ground, feeling a weight on top of her. She groaned in pain and the person on top of her rolled of off her, grunting.

The person, a girl with white long hair, stood up wincing a little bit. She picked here skateboard up and frowned.

“You dinged my board,“ she said looking at her skateboard in sorrow.

Suki scoffed because the girl, ran into her, not the other way around.

“I dinged your board? You ran me over. You lucky I didn’t...,“ she started, but stopped when she glanced at the girl.

Sukis breath got caught in her throat, when she looked into her blue eyes.

 _She was beautiful. Breathtaking even,_ literary.

“Y-Y-You ran me over,“ Suki breathed out, but there was no heat behind it.

“You’re a ghost?“, she asked and the girl started smiling.

„Mm. Yeah. Ever since I learned the hard way that skating in traffic is bad,“ she chuckled slightly.

They starred at each other for a second before the girl cleared her throat.

“Hey, sorry I, uh smashed into you. I thought you were a lifer, and I’d just pass right through.“

“Uh, a lifer?“ Suki looked confused at the girl, but she just shrugged with a grin.

“Yeah... that‘s what we call people who are living,“ she explained, Suki could just nod.

“You‘re new to this whole ghost thing aren’t you?“ she asked and there was excitement in her voice.

“Yeah. Is it that obvious?“

“Totally,“ she laughed. „Hey, I‘m Yue.“

“Suki,“ she said and shook the hand of the girl.

There was an awkward silence and Yue, thank god, broke it.

“So, what brings you to Hollywood? Sightseeing? Picture with that Spiderman boy?“ she asked and pointed to a spot behind her, were a boy, in a Spiderman costume was taking some pictures.

Yue wiggled her eyebrows, but Suki shook her head laughing. „Uh, actually, I was having a minor afterlife crisis, so you know, just clearing my head until you tried to crack it open.“

That made the girl laugh and Sukis heart skipped a beat. When she realized that Suki wasn’t laughing along, she apologized and told her to tell her about her afterlife crisis.

“Yeah, I just keep freaking out about everything, you know?“ she took a deep breath. „Shouldn’t we be in heaven or something?“

“Who‘s we?“ she asked confused.

“Oh me and my bandmates. We all died.“

“Oh. Now, that’s tragic. You guys had some kind of accident, or...?“ she trailed off, looking sympathetically at Suki.

“Yeah,“ Suki said brushing it off, like it was nothing, because she was a little bit embarrassed about the reason of their death.

“Yeah, you could say that. We ate some bad hot dogs.“

Yues eyes widened at that. „Woah! No way.“

“Yeah,“ Suki breathed out.

“Weirdly, that is what happened to Mozart,“ she grinned.

“Wow. That‘s actually comforting. Thank you.“

It was slient, again. And Suki knew that they would soon part ways, but she liked the girl and didn’t want to go back to the boys. 

„Hey, do you mind if I ask you a couple more questions?“, Suki asked hopefully and Yue grinned, nodding at Suki.

With that they ran through the city, while Suki asked some questions and Yue giving her the answers, well obviously not to every question, but still.

***

When Zuko walked through the front door, he saw his uncle sitting on the couch, drinking tea.

He told him that he got back into his music class and explained, what he did to get in it again. 

„I‘m so happy for you, nephew,“ he said hugging Zuko, he smiled back at his uncle and told him, that he would go upstairs to do some homework.

He was still thinking about Mai, he still felt bad. But she just had to understand, that he couldn’t tell her. She should‘ve just accept Zukos choice, but no she had to be all jealousy and mad.

Ok, to be fair, Zuko could understand her anger. He would‘ve been angry too, if she kept something like that to herself, lying too him.

He groaned frustrated and jumped on his bed thinking about Mai, and how he could apologize to her.

Without realizing it, though, his thoughts went to the blue eyed ghost, in his garage.

Without him, he wouldn’t be in the music program again, he had to thank him properly, but he didn’t know how. 

Zuko shook that thought away, his problem with Mai was more important. 

He sighed and went downstairs, maybe the others had an idea.

***

Zuko went into the room, seeing Haru on the bass and Sokka on the guitar, playing a riff, that Zuko didn’t recognized. 

„Guys, you aren’t supposed to be out here playing alone,“ Zuko sighed exhausted.

They stopped and Haru frowned a little. „But we’re not alone, cause we always have each other.“

He grinned and Sokka put his arm around his shoulders laughing. Zuko rolled his eyes and scoffed at them.

He didn’t want to argue with them, but he also didn’t want to deal with someone walking in on them. So he plugged the cable for the volume of the instruments out.

“But ... but we had the volume level on one,“ Sokka protested and put the guitar away.

“But we rocked it on volume ten. You want us to play it again?“ Haru asked, but Zuko ignored him, plugging out another cable.

Sokka winced and leaned towards Haru. „I really don’t think he does,“ he mumbled.

Sokka saw the exhausted look on Zukos face and frowned. He was a little bit worried, that guy never looked happy, to be honest. Well not that often, anyway.

He wanted to make him smile again so he grinned at Zuko and told him about his idea. „We‘ve been waiting for you to get home. Ok, so we have some pretty major news to tell you.“

Zuko just raised his eyebrow and Sokka continued. „We had a band meeting earlier, and...“

Haru slapped his hands on his thighs to play a ‚durm roll‘.

“We wanna invite you to join Sunset Curve. And no, you’re not dreaming,“ he shrieked excited, starring with hopeful eyes at Zuko.

His frown just deepened. „Oh.“

There was a long silence and Sokka felt his heart drop. He shifted slightly, from one foot to the other, nervously.

This wasn’t the answer he excepted. 

„Oh, uh... Oh, he said ‚Oh.‘ Uhm,“ Sokka chuckled awkwardly. „That’s what you say when you get socks on you birthday not when you‘re invited to join the most epic band ever.“ 

„Sorry. _I‘m honored_ , but I can’t think about anything but Mai right now,“ Zuko looked in pain. 

_Oh_. Sokka thought.

 _Zuko really cared about that Mai girl_. Sokkas stomach dropped at that thought. He shook his head confused of his own thoughts, focusing back on Zuko.

„She‘s still mad at me for lying. She hasn’t even texted me back.“

Sokka let out a breath of relieve, shaking his head slightly.

“Yeah, you‘re in a tough spot,“ Sokka mumbled, while Haru nodded in agreement.

“So, you wanna join the band?“ Sokka asked again, looking hopefully at Zuko.

Zuko scoffed. „What the fuck, dude? Read the room.“

He walked past Sokka, not believing how insensitive he was. 

Couldn’t he understand, that Mai was more important at the moment, than joining the band? He needed her, she was his best friend after all and he hated that she was mad at him. 

„Oh come on!“ Sokka pleaded, running after Zuko. „We need you, and you need us because you need music!“

Zuko turned around his expression softening a little.

“We found this poem that you wrote, and Haru and I we added this really cool melody to it. It sounds awesome,“ he sounded excited, folding out a sheet showing it to Zuko.

Zukos expression hardened again. „Where‘d you find that?“ 

Zuko really tried to be calm, but Sokka made it very difficult for him. They talked about boundaries, after all.

He was mad, no furious, even. 

Sokkas eyes widened and he flinched at Zukos hard voice. He grabbed Harus arm and pushed him in front of himself. „Uh... definitely not your dream box.“

“You went through my stuff!“ Zuko screamed in disbelief.

How could Sokka act so casual about this? He was invading Zukos privacy. This was not ok. Zuko kind of started to like him, but this situation kind of changed his mind a little. He thought more like hoped, that Sokka would be more thoughtful about this, but clearly Zuko was wrong.

“I know, but...,“ Sokka stumbled out and ran towards the Piano, away from Zuko.

“Yeah, we can do that now,“ Haru said grinning at the other two.

“No! No, you can’t!“

Zuko tried to catch Sokka, running after the Blue eyed ghost, but he ran around the piano. 

„Boundaries! Give it back,“ Zuko said looking at Sokka, like he wanted to choke him.

“No! Hey, you need to realize how insanely talented you are," he pleaded shaking his head, climbing on top of the piano and laying the sheet in front of Zuko.

Sokka thought, that Zuko had to realize how talented he is. He wanted to show him, how he felt when he first read the lyrics Zuko wrote. He couldn't just let Zuko waste his talent. After all this was Zuko. Angelic voice, great playing piano, Zuko.

_Cute smile, awkward, handsome, shy, Zuko._

He _had_ to show him. 

"Ok? listen to this," Sokka begged.

" _If somebody hurts you_ ," he started to sing, but Zuko wanted to snatch the sheets form the piano, but Sokka was faster and picked them up, hiding them behind his back.

" _If somebody hurts you, I'm gonna get hurt too,_ " he sang and looked directly into Zukos eyes, and Zukos face softened slightly.

" _And my life, My life would be real low, zero, Fyling solo_."

" _Oh-Oh_ ," Haru added with a grin, which made Sokka chuckle.

"It's a killer melody," Sokka said with a hesitate smile.

"I wrote that about Mai," Zuko finally sighed and Sokkas heart dropped.

 _He really liked her, like a lot._ Sokka thought.

"When she was helping me with all my mom stuff," Zuko explained and looked sadly towards the sheets in Sokkas hands.

 _Oh._ Sokka nodded and again for some reason he felt relieved, hearing those words.

Zuko shook his head and walked towards the door. Giving up on getting the song back. Sokka jumped down form the the piano.

"Hey, what about the band?" he asked with a pleading look on his face.

Sokka wouldn’t give up that easily. He was sure, that he could convince that boy joining the band, but he didn’t know how.

Zuko chuckled bitterly and opened the door, looking into Sokkas face. "Oh... I almost forgot."

"Stay out of my room!" he said completely ignoring Sokkas question.

He ran after him, stucking his head out through the door. "Yeah? We will if you join the band!“

***

Suki and Yue talked for hours. Suki told Yue about how they died and how they ended up here. She told her about Zuko and how he was the only one that could see them, but when they were playing music, that everyone could see them.

Yue looked deep in her thoughts. "Maybe this Zuko's connected to your unfinished business."

Suki nodded. "Mhm. Yes. Totally. I would completely agree if I had any clue what you're talking about," Suki said confuesed.

"Right," Yue laughed. "Uhm... unfinished business. It's why people become ghosts when they die. You know there's still something they need to accomplish, and once they complete it, they can cross over."

Suki needed to process that, but nodded after a few minutes of silents. She still didn't know what to say.

"Ok, so how do we figure out what our unfinished business is?" she asked curious.

Yue shrugged. "I don't know. You know, some ghosts never do. I still haven't. But, you know, I'm not too worried about it, because being a ghost let's me do my favorite thing."

She looked at her skateboard and grinned. "Skate anywhere I want without getting busted. I mean, when I'm not skating here or the beach, I'm skating in Justin Bieber's empty pool," she laughed.

She chuckled at that shaking her head. 

"Wow," she breathed out, fascinated about the girl in fornt of her.

"Yeah," she smiled.

"Who's that?" Suki asked curious and titled her head to the side.

Yues blue eyes widend. "You seriously have so much to catch up on. Damn."

She laughed and Suki could just stare. She liked the blue eyed girl, she was funny and it was great talking to another person besides the boys.

"All right. I'll catch you later, hotdog," she grinned and stood up, ready to skate away.

"I really don't like that nickname. It's how I died." she called after her, but smiled to herself.

She looked at a random guy beside her. "She is cute, huh?"

She was aware that he couldn't hear her, but she didn't care.

***

When Suki returned to the boys, she told them everthing about Yue, aware of the fact, that she was smiling the whole time. She also told them about the unfinshed business thing, while Sokka still worked on the meldoy of the song. 

"Ok? All ghosts have like, unfinished business. So, we need to do our unfinished business so that we can cross over," she explained happily, after seeing the confused looks on the boys faces.

"Why would we do that," Sokka frowned.

Suki looked at him in confusion and he blushed looking away.

"I-I'm just saying, this is like our second chance," Sokka mumbled, strumbling over his words.

But deep down, he knew, that this wasn't the only reason.

"All we need to do is get Zuko to play with us."

"Yeah. Not only can that boy sing, he can write too," Haru breathed out, looking at Suki.

"Sokka and I made a killer meldoy to one of her lyrics," Haru said, while Sokka pulled out the sheets and gave them to Suki.

She looked at it nodding slighly. "Oh," she mumbled and read over the lyrics.

"Without your dummer, cool." she muttered under her breath.

Sokka slapped her arm and look at her with a serouis look on his face. "Drumming is so '90s. Ok? We're just gonna... stomp our feets now."

"Ok," Suki narrowed her eyes at Sokka. "Well, you know what else is so '90s? Being rude. All right? Get woke. These are sensitve times."

She punched the sheets into Sokkas chest and he let out a shocked gasped, starring at her with wide eyes.

"Suki," Haru whispered in shock.

"Ow," Sokka mumbled, rubbing his chest and glaring at Suki.

Suki looked at Haru grinning and bending down towards him. "I learend that from my ghost friend," she whispered.

"Woke,“ Haru tried and narrowed his eyes slightly.

„That's a cool word," Haru grinned and Suki nodded.

"Yeah."

"What does it mean?"

"No clue," Suki breathed out, shaking her head.

***

Zuko didn't know how, but he somehow could convince Mai to come to the garage in half an hour. He talked to her, but she was mad at him, not even listening to him and his apologies and he blurted out, that the three, are in fact, ghosts. She looked like she didn't believe him one word, but she still agreed to come to his place.

He could understand her anger, he really could. He would've been that pissed, if she lied to him. So, he didn't had the right to be mad at her. 

He went to Sokka asking for their help. He was more excited than Zuko, when he told him that he wanted to sing the song with them, for Mai. 

They were rehearsing the song. Zuko randomly pushed some keys down, while Suki and Haru discussed something, Zuko hadn’t payed attention to.

Sokka cleared his throat and looked at Zuko. 

"Uhm ... So Mai?" he said awkwardly, rubbing his neck.

Zuko frowned and raised his eyebrow at Sokka.

"Since when are you, uhm dating?" Sokka winced at his own voice.

Zuko just started laughing, shaking his head and he saw a faint blush appearing on Sokkas cheeks. But maybe he was just imagining things.

"She is my best friend," Zuko smiled "And also, I'm uhm ... gay."

Sokka mutterted something under his breath, but looked up, meeting Zukos ember eyes with a genuine, soft smile.

"That's cool."

Zuko smiled up at him and saw Sokka opening and closing his mouth, several times, but no words coming out.

Before he could say anything, though, Mai was walking through the door.

She scoffed at Zuko, crossing her arms in front of her and walked past him. Zuko snorted and went to the kyeboard.

"All right guys. You ready?" he asked the three ghosts.

They grinned up at him nodding.

"Uh, acutally, can you go over there? Haru needs some space to rock out, and he feels kinda weird walking through you."

She laughed at him shaking her head. "Boy, when you create a world, you really live in it."

He grabbed her arm, rolling his eyes and pushed her on the chair. "Just sit!"

He looked at the ceiling, grinning. "If you'll notice, there's no equipment that will produce a hologram. Feel free to look around."

"The guys took a poem that I wrote about you and put it to music," Zuko said and took a deep breath.

"Aww! I wish I didn't have to talk to your unlce after this," she muttered.

Zuko chuckled slighly, shaking his head. "It's called "Flying Solo."

She raised one eyebrow, but there was a small genuine smile forming on her lips and he started to play the song.

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7ck2aWb9A> _

" _My life, my life would be real low,_ " Zuko sang and the three ghosts appeared in fornt of Mais face.

She looked shocked for a moment and let out a gasped. She looked up at Zuko with a disbelieved look on her face. Zuko stood up, with the microphone in his hand and grabbing Mais hand with his other hand, pulling her up. She still looked unsure and furrowed her eyebrows at the ghosts. He pulled her towards Suki, then Haru and then Sokka. 

Her expression softened and her stiff shoulders, slumped down, relaxing slightly. She looked again at Zuko and a small smile was playing on her lips. Zuko grinned and hugged her, while he still sang into the microphone.

There was a break in the song, only the instruments playing. Mai pulled her hand up and tried to touch Harus arm, but it went right through him. She gasped, with wide eyes. 

"Weird, right?" he laughed.

"They're ghosts!" she said in disbelief.

"Oh, we prefer, uh, musician spirts," Suki smiled, form her drums.

"Zuko... so does this mean you're joining our band?" Sokka asked, hopeful eyes starring at Zuko, while he still played the guitar.

Mai snorted and walked towards Sokka. "Acutally, I think you're joning his band."

Sokka grinned at that and Zuko leaned on Mais shoulder smirking. "I'm gonna go with what she said."

They finshed the song, Zuko pulling Mai into another hug.


	5. I Got the Music

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFitJze7X_8> _

Zuko walked through the hallways of his school, smiling. He had a song stuck in his head, mumbling it, while he was walking to his locker. It was actually a rare sight for everyone to see him this happy at the school, since his mother passed away. Well, actually this happy in general. 

When he finally reached his locker, a laugh from the right startled him out of his thoughts. He looked to the right and saw Mai grinning at him, happily, with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, what's up," Zuko asked, opening the locker.

"Nothing. It's just nice seeing you back to your weirdo self," she shrugged her shoulders and leaned on the locker next to her.

Zuko chuckled slighly. "Thanks?"

"So how's the band? Still hot? Still talented?" she asked smirking, but then leaned forward and scrunched her nose slightly. "Still dead?"

"Amazing," Zuko laughed lightly. "Sokka and I spent the whole weekend writing songs."

He was happy and glad that he eventually said yes, and joined the band. Sokka and Zuko harmonized perfectly, writing amazing songs together. Zuko wrote mostly the lyrics, while Sokka made some melodies up and sometimes it was the other way around. Sokka was weirdly endearing and Zukos heart skipped some beats sometimes, while watching Sokka laugh or singing or just reading the lyrics Zuko wrote, with a soft smile on his face. 

_They were a perfect team_. Zuko thought, with a small soft smile on his lips, thinking about the blue eyed boy.

He was catching himself, thinking about Sokka a lot lately. But he shrugged that thought off.

"Come on. You wanna hear some of them?" he was closing his locker.

"Duh," Mai said excited and linked her arm with Zukos, pulling him towards the music room.

They walked through the door and put their bags on the floor. "Like it was flowing through me like when I used to write with mom." Zuko trailed off, smiling at the thought of his mother.

He sat himself in front of the piano, grinning up at her in excitement. She smiled back at him, waiting for him to play.

"So, this is the first song Sokka and I wrote," he started to play the notes, remembering Sokkas smile, while Zuko was trying to play the song for the first time on the piano, in the studio.

It was a proud grin, that made Zuko blush. And it wasn’t helping, that Sokka complimented him a lot, after they finished the song, his blush getting even a deeper shade of red. 

He liked it, though, but no one had to know that.

"Here is a bit of the chorus," he said remembering exactly which keys to play.

" _'Cause we're standing on the edge of great, Great, Great,_ " he sang, the whole time smiling without realizing it and Mai nodded in awe. 

"Wow I like it. Definite Gaga vibes."

"Thanks! I think we have an anthem with this one," he nodded, and got ready for the next song, chuckling sadly. "It's something my mom and I were working on."

Her expression softened at that.

"Sokka and I finished it. Check it out," Zuko started to play again, this time more serious. " _And it's one, two, three, four times, That I've tried for one more night, Light a fire in my eyes, I'm going out of my mind._ "

She shook her head, but there was a soft smile on her lips. "That's ... That's beautiful."

She grinned though and wiggled her eyebrows. "And my boy's got a crush, and his name is Sokka."

Zuko blushed with big eyes, shaking his head immediately. "What? No. Sokka's a ghost," he stumbled out.

 _That was stupid_ , Zuko thought. He didn’t had a crush on Sokka. Even if he was cute, funny, sometimes an asshole, talented and beautiful.

 _Okay, maybe it was a small crush. Who cares? It will go away_ , Zuko convinced himself.

She looked knowingly into his eyes, narrowing them slightly. "A cute ghost."

He sighed defeated. He knew she was right, but this was wrong. Sokka was a ghost. 

"With a perfect smile," he mumbled embarrassed and Mai started laughing.

"Ha! I knew it! Just remember he's made of air,“ she said with a seriousness in her voice.

"Cute air," Zukos shoulders dropped slightly and he looked at the keys on the piano.

He expression got serious and she sighed. "Just don't get hurt, ok? Obviously, you guys have a connection. Everybody's wondering when you'll play again."

Zuko furrowed his eyebrow in confusion. "Play again? We don't even have anything planned. Sokka and I have been focused on writing songs."

"Lucky for you, your marketing team has been way ahead of you," she started but Zuko cut her off. "I don't have a marketing team."

She just laughed and opened her bag, grabbing a small poster out of it. 

_Zuko and his hologram_ _band, tonight at the dance._ was written on it. "Yes you do! And surprise! You're playing at the school dance tonight, and I'm DJ-ing too," she exclaimed.

Zuko grabbed the poster in disbelief, with wide eyes.

They weren't ready for another show, were they? Zuko felt himself panicking a little. _Why didn't she asked him, before telling everyone._

She made it even worse, with her next words. "I posted it all over social media. You have an excellent marketing team," she grinned proudly.

Zuko shook his head no. "No. No. This is in front of the whole school."

This was not good and Zuko didn’t want to do it. It was too soon. 

Before Mai could answer, her phone started buzzing. She picked it out of her bag and looked at it.

"Sorry, you already have 68 likes."

 _Oh no._ Zuko thought and his panic got only worse.

"Wait," Zuko huffed angry, when Mai walked away.

He grabbed his own bag, running after her. He had to stop her. This was a lot, and he had a bad feeling about this.

***

He couldn't stop Mai and now he was standing in front of Sokka and Haru, telling them about the gig at his school dance. And if he is being honest, he wasn't that mad at Mai, but still, she had to ask him frist, right?

"We're playing at a school dance? Sweet!" Haru grinned and looked up from the poster in his hands.

Sokka though, wasn't that excited and he grimaced slighly, looking at the poster.

"It's not exactly the Strip," he mumbled, which made Zuko huff out a laugh.

"And you're not exactly alive, so maybe you should be happy we have our first gig," Haru said looking at Sokka seriously.

"I wasn't in love with the idea at first either," Zuko started, while he watered the plants in the studio. "But it could be a great way for us to build a follwing, right?"

That's what Mai said, at least. And he knew she was right. Everyone has to start small. The idea of playing in front of some students wasn’t that bad after all, they could rock them, but they would have to rehearse a lot before the show.

Haru nodded and smiled at Zuko. "Yeah. Yeah. We need to play wherever we can, whenever we can."

And finally Sokka nodded too. "No, you're right. Let's rock those kids' faces off and then play in clubs," he grinned looking directly into Zukos eyes.

Zuko smiled, but felt himself blush a little, at the intense eye contact.

"And then record a single that gets a billion streams?" Zuko suggested, smiling at the idea.

"I don't know what that is, but hopefully it gets us a manager and a tour," Sokka laughed.

"And then we release a bunch of hit albums," Zuko said, leaning on the piano in equal excitement, grinning at the two boys.

Harus eyes widened. "Put out a country album that does surprisingly well."

Zuko raised his eyebrow and tilted his head too the side, crossing his arms in front of him.

"I shred on the banjo, so...," Haru sputtered awkwardly and blushed a little.

Zuko smiled, though. "Then I'll learn to fiddle."

"And before you know it," Sokka said and punched his fist with excitement against the piano. "We're being inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame."

"But one of us isn't there," Haru said with wide eyes. "Because we had a blowout in 2032. My money is on Suki."

Sokka ignored Haru, looking at Zuko. "What are we waiting for? Let's get rehearsing!" he clapped into his hands.

"Uh... Where is Suki?", Zuko asked with a quiet laugh.

***

Suki and Yue were walking side by side to a museum, that Yue talked about a lot. Both girls had goofy smiles on their lips.

When they reached the door, Suki looked over to Yue, grinning with a raised eyebrow. "You know what? I don't think this is about the art. I think you just like breaking the rules."

"Maybe," she smirked, shrugging her shoulders. "You should try it sometime."

Sukis shoulders dropped and she sighed, looking over to Yue. "We're going in there, aren't we?"

She just laughed and grabbed Sukis hand, pulling her through the door. 

Sukis heart skipped a beat and a faint pink color tinted her cheeks.

"Wow," Suki breathed and looked at the art in awe.

"Sick, right?" Yue chuckled and put her helmet on her head. "And we got the whole place to ourselves."

Suki realized that that her helmet was cracked open on the right side and she remembered how the girl died. She swallowed hard and shook the thoughts away.

Yue jumped on her skateboard and skated through the halls, laughing. Suki just smiled at the girl with the white her, shaking her head.

She stopped with a smile on her lips, breathing heavily. Yues cheeks were pink and Suki could just stare at the girl in front of her. She really liked her and it was so obvious, Suki thought. But Yue was oblivious. 

Yue looked at a bench and her eyes widened in excitment. "Suki, move that bench over here," she pointed at a spot next to her. "I'm gonna try to jump it."

Suki looked at the bench with a frown. "Uh.. Yeah. I can't move that."

Yue stopped in her tracks, looking at Suki with big eyes. 

"I can barely move small things," she mumbled and looked at the ground embarrassed.

And then Yue just snickered, which deepened Sukis frown.

"Suki, trust me. If you focus on putting all your energy into your hands, you can move anything," she said with a reassuring smile and moved beside Suki, looking at the bench.

"Ok," Suki said and tried to move it, but her hands went through the bench and they both started laughing.

"No, I guess I gotta start doing ghost push-ups."

"No," Yue sighed. "You just gotta focus."

"Yeah, I've always had a hard time focusing. I've always been a little anxious, and then I died."

"Which did not calm me down," Suki said and Yue nodded understandingly.

"Right," Yue breathed out, seeming like she was deep in her thoughts, but then she smiled at Suki and held her hand towards the girl with the reddish hair.

Suki placed her hand above Yues and Yue moved her hand under the bench.

"Okay, ready?" Suki just nodded and they tried to move the bench upwards.

It worked and Suki felt proud, grinning up at the girl next to her. They moved the bench and Yue tried her jump and she succeed.

Suki couldn't believe her luck, meeting Yue. She was more than happy, when they hung out and Suki realized that she may or may not has a small crush on the beautiful white haired girl. She couldn’t images her afterlife now without Yue.

Yue sat on the bench looking up at Suki, while the latter one stood awkwardly next to the bench, with her hands in the pockets of her jeans.

"You're wired a little tight, huh?" Yue had a small smile on her lips and Suki sat herself down, next to the other girl, rolling her eyes.

Yue looked a little more serouis towards Suki. "Is that why you started playing drums? To help with your... anxiety?"

"Yeah. I mean, pretty much."

Suki started playing the drums, when she was only a toddler. It helped her through rough times. Times like, when she came out to her parents and they didn't accept her. That night, she ran to Sokka, crying, breaking down in his arms. He held her through the whole night, even when she fell asleep on him, she woke up in his arms, feeling a little bit better about herself. He was like a big brother, and she loved him for that. The next day she let all her anger out, while playing on her drums.

"There is no better way to work out your problems than wailing on some drums, right?" 

Suki felt her stomach twist, when she saw the sad look on Yues face and wondered why the sudden mood change.

There was a silent moment, until Yue grinned and punched Suki in her arm. Suki saw that the grin, didn't reached her eyes. 

"Hey, do you know what makes me feel better?" Yue said and stood up, smiling.

"Yelling in ... museums."

A laugh escaped Sukis lips and she stood up as well, raising her eyebrow at Yue, while the girl screamed.

Suki let out a weak yell, which made Yue snicker.

"Put your heart into, Suki!"

And then they both started to yell, laughing like maniacs, when they were done.

***

Zuko was on his keyboard, while Haru was on the bass and Sokka on his guitar, rehearsing one of their songs.

Zuko couldn't help but feel a little bit excited about the gig in his school. But there was still a part of him that was a little bit anxious. The bad feeling didn't go away, but Zuko tried to push that thought out of his mind, focusing on the boys in front of him.

"One more time," Sokka said and Zuko nodded, repeating the last part.

They ended the song and Suki came into the room. 

"Oh. Hey, Suki," Haru grinned at her.

"Where have you been," Sokka interrupted with a frown. "We need to start practicing."

Her eyes widened slightly, looking confused at the boys. "Yeah? For what?"

Before Zuko could explain everything to her, the garage door opened and Mai walked in.

"Dance news! I don't have a date. But I don't care because I'm so psyched to see you guys perform."

Suki grimaced. "Oh man! We're playing at a dance."

Sokka dropped down onto a chair and shrugged. "Of course. That's how we get a following nowadays," he explained, looking at Zuko with a smile. 

Sokka wasn't that happy about the dance, but Zuko seemed excited. That fact changed Sokkas opinion and he tried his best to like the idea, for Zuko. He was happy, as long as he would sing beside the boy with the golden eyes. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he would play everywhere and anywhere, for him. But Sokka was oblivious and just ignored those feelings, for the most part. He didn't know why he would do those things for Zuko, but it was sure as hell, that he would, no matter what.

Zuko chuckled and that sound ripped Sokka out of his thoughts. He liked when Zuko laughed, it made him happy.

"Yeah, get with the program, Suki," Zuko snickered and the only thing that Sokka could do, was stare at him with a huge goofy smile playing on his lips.

"The guys are here?", Mai asked searching the room, with her eyes. "Hey guys."

"Ok, well, now that Suki has graced us with her presence, can we start working?" Sokka asked with a little bit annoyance in is voice.

"Yes," Zuko nodded and looked towards Mai. "We're gonna rehearse. You wanna stick around?"

She sighed deeply. "I'm supposed to blow up 500 balloons for the school dance, but this sounds better." she gestured with her hand towards the area where she thought the ghosts were.

Zuko wanted to tell her that she should go and do that, but the door of the studio slammed open and Azula came inside.

"Hey, Zuzu. Remember those orbs in uncles picutres?" she sounded excited. "I think they're ghosts."

 _Oh no._ Was Zukos only thought and he looked up at his sister, who smirked at him.

She laid the pictures on Zukos keyboard. "But don't worry. This room is...," she started and looked around, while Zuko looked at the picture, rolling his eyes at her.

Of course she would try to find out, if there are ghosts here.

She turned around and looked at Zuko. "This room is clean. I'm not getting the ghost tinglies."

"Wrong again, little princess," Haru laughed.

Sokka laughed and Zuko couldn't help, but stare at him.

_He was beaut-_

"Have no fear, dear brother. If they come back, I will protect you, because I am the woman of the house," she grinned, but all Zuko could do was snort at her.

"Isn't it supposed to be 'I am the man of the house.'" Zuko asked with a raised eyebrow.

She laughed and it was in fact an evil laugh. "You know I'm stronger than you."

Sokka laughed at that, but shut his mouth immediately, when Zuko glared at him, with pink cheeks.

"According to the internet, salt burns their souls," she grinned and picked a salt shaker out of her jacket.

The eyes of all three ghost widened, panic raising in their chests. 

"A little sprinkle will keep them from ever coming here," she said and started to throw the salt around. Sokka shrieked and jumped away. Haru stumbled backwards with a grunt, still looking panicked. Azula hit Sukis legs with the salt and Zukos eyes ripped open, while the girl started screaming.

"Oh god ...," she sobbed and then frowned straightening her back. "I'm fine. I'm fine. Totally, fine." she grinned embarrassed and let out a breath of relieve.

Zuko cleared his throat and looked at Mai, gesturing with his head towards the door, his jaw clenched. Her eyes widened, realizing what Zuko meant.

"Oh," she said and looked at Azula, with an awkward smile. "Azula, you know who’s hungry? Me."

She shifted on her feet and pointed to the door. "Uh, salt me a path to the kitchen." Mai cringed at her own words, just like Zuko.

Azula grimaced, but shrugged and followed Mai outside.

Suki sighed relieved.

Zuko looked at the three ghosts with a smile, his eyes lingering a few seconds longer on Sokka, than on the other two ghosts. 

"Should we try again?"

Sokka stood up with his guitar in his hands. "Yes, please. But remind us later, there's some Sunset Curve songs to show you."

"Oh! Show me now," Zuko pleaded with excitement in his voice.

"Yeah. Ok." Sokka answered without hesitation.

He turned around to pick up his notebook, groaning. "Home Is Where My Horse Is? Haru, stop putting your country songs in my journal."

Haru looked offended. "That was a gift."

"Thanks, buddy," Sokka snorted, not amused and walked towards Zuko, his expression softening, when their eyes met.

"I dog-eared the ones that I think you would slay," he breathed out softly and Zuko took the journal out of his hand.

Zuko went through the journal, his eyes scanning the pages. Zuko chuckled slightly, when he read the next page, looking up at Sokka. "Who's Katara?"

His face paled, a blank expression on his face, but if you looked closely, there was pain in his eyes. But Zuko didn't saw the reaction, looking at the pages in front of him.

"That one's not dog-eared," he frowned and wanted to grab the journal out of Zukos hands, but he was faster and turned to the side, pressing the book against his chest, with a weirded out, look on his face.

He was confused, it was just a love song. He didn't understand Sokkas reaction.

Sokka swallowed the lump in his throat and gave up, letting Zuko read through the pages.

"If you could only know that I never let you go," Zuko grinned up at Sokka. "Wow, Sokka, I didn't know you were such a romantic."

"He's not. That one's actually about-," Suki said with a small frown on her face, but was interrupted by Sokka.

"No one," Sokka rushed out, shaking his head.

Sukis and Sokkas eyes met and there was a silent conversation going on. Sokka looked at Zuko and tried to smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes and it looked more like a painful grimace.

"Uh, that's just something that I tried, and...," he started, but stopped himself, it seemed like he was deep in his thoughts and Zuko felt a little bit bad. "But if you go to the next dog-eared page I got a tune that's just... It's got a killer beat."

He walked backwards and plucked a few strings. There was still a little frown on his face, but it disappeared when he played a riff on his guitar.

"So you wanna sample?" Zuko asked, impressed with how well Sokka could play.

Zuko new that song by heart. He liked rock music and grow up with it, because of his mother.

Sokka let out a confused laugh. "What do you mean 'sample'?"

"Sample someone else's music," Zuko explained, but when no one answered, he countinued.

"Me and my mom used to sing that song at the top of our lungs all the time," Zuko laughed sadly, remembering those moments.

"It's a classic Lin Fong song," Zuko shrugged.

"Nope," Sokka said shaking his head. "It's a classic _our_ song."

Haru nodded in agreement. "Pure Sunset Curve. Never even heard of Ling Fong."

"Yeah, maybe you're mixing it up, you know, with another song," Suki said.

Zuko snorted at that, because he new his music well.

"I don't mix up songs. Trust me. Me and her daughter used to be best friends. I used to hang out at their place all the time. I know that song."

The three looked like they didn't believed him, which frustated Zuko. He knew Lin Fong well. She was like an aunt to Zuko, so why didn't they believe him?

He sighed. "Ok. Here," he muttered and picked up his laptop from the floor. "I'll prove it."

He felt stupid proofing them something like this, but he googled the woman anyway.

He turned the laptop around, to show them a picture of Lin. "Her first album had a bunch of hits, but none of his latest stuff is as good."

Their eyes widened and Suki grabbed Harus arm with a firm grip. Haru winced and Sokkas face fell.

"That's Toph," he said and clenched his jaw.

Zuko huffed, _what the hell was Sokka talking about._ He was annoyed with him, for not believing him.

"Seriously, I just told you her name is Lin."

Suki shook her head, with an unreadable expression. "Ok, great. Then... Then maybe she changed it, all right? That's definitly Toph. She was our rhythm guitarist."

Zuko scoffed, shaking his head, not believing her. "Lin was in your band?"

Suki ignored him, taking a closer look at the picture.

"I can't get over how old she looks," Haru mumbled in disbelief.

Suki had a bitter look on her face. "She looks like a substitute teacher."

Zuko looked confused at Suki, but before he could say anything, Sokka spoke. "Zuko." It sounded choked and he glanced over to the boy.

He looked pissed. "What were her other hits?"

Zuko winced at his harsh voice. He never saw Sokka so angry. Zuko thought for a second, about Sokkas question. "Get Lost."

Sokkas scoffed angrily, looking completely disappointed, while taking off his guitar "Yeah. I wrote that."

Zukos heart dropped at the sight of Sokka, so he tried again. "Long Weekend?"

"Yeah, Sokka wrote that one too," Haru said and even he looked angry.

_Oh no._

"Crooked Teeth?" Zuko winced. 

"And that one," Suki pressed out through clenched teeth. "It was about Haru."

"What?" Haru asked shocked. "I thought it was about you!"

He crossed his arms over his chest, kicking the air angrily. "I don't like that song anymore."

"Wait. This is ... freaking me out," Zuko breathed out overwhelmed with this situation. "Lin's songs are kind of big to me."

That woman lied to everyone, apparently and Zuko felt betrayed. Why would she feel the need to do such a thing? Stealing songs from another artist. Zuko was disappointed.

"She is the one who introduced me to rock."

Suki laughed humorless and turned around. "Yeah. Sokka introduced you to rock."

Sokka was throwing angrily dart pins at the dartboard, not meeting anyones eyes.

"So this whole time, I thought you were connected to my mom. But instead, you are connected to Ty Lees mom?" Zuko shook his head, confused.

"Out of all people, it had to be the one girl who had it out for me," Zuko scroffed.

"All right, well, add it to our list of questions," Suki rolled her eyes.

"Back when Ty Lee and I were friends, the three of us used to talk about music all the time. She never mentioned you guys," Zuko said with a sympathic look on his face.

He felt betrayed, but he couldn’t even fathom how those three felt right know. He felt bad for them, but Zuko didn’t know what to do about that.

"And that's unbelievable!" Sokka said angry and throw another dart pin at the dartboard and Zuko flinched.

He turned around to look at Zuko. Sokka looked like he would almost cry and Zuko pushed the urge away to put his arms around him, hugging him tightly. Mumbling reassuring words into his hair.

It wouldn’t even work, Zuko had to remind himself. He can’t touch the ghosts.

"Ok, he can take all the credit, and he doesn't even mention us?" Sokka scoffed, while Suki looked down and Haru shook his head, clearly disappointed.

"And she is rich," Zuko mumbled. "She has her own helicopter," Zuko said, but that was clearly the wrong thing to say, because Sokka groaned and throw another dart pin angrily at the wall.

Suki stood up with a shocked expression on her face. "She has ... She has a ... a helicopter?"

"With her face on it," Zuko opened another tab on his laptop, googling the helicopter and turned it around for the three ghosts.

"And she ... she parks it in front of that hotel?" haru sputtered, pointing to the mansion.

"No. She gets to park it in front of her mansion," Zuko was pissed.

_That woman was a liar._

"Mansion?" Haru shrieked. 

"Dude, we live in a fucking garage," Suki scoffed angrily.

Sokka shook his head, looking like he wants to punch a wall and Zuko would understand if he just did do that.

"It's not about the money. It's about the music!" Sokka yelled frustrated.

"It's a little bit about the money though!" Haru mumbled.

"A little bit about the money," Suki agreed wincing at Sokkas death glare.

"She could have shared it with our families!" Haru said.

And now Zuko was just sad. That was just totally fucked up, why would Lin, well, Toph do such a thing?

 _Maybe their families needed the money_ , Zuko thought. That thought made Zuko sick. 

Haru countiued though, making the feelings Zuko had, even worse. "Maybe then my parents woudn't have had their house turned into a bike shack."

"What she did is steal our legacy," Sokka frowned and clenched his fists and he looked exhausted.

"Where does he live?" Sokka asked glaring at Zuko.

The glare wasn't meant for Zuko, he knew that, but he still flinched. He hated that look on Sokka and would do anything, to make him smile again. 

Zuko sighed, thinking about telling them, and because of Sokkas expression, he finally gave in. "Above the beach in Malibu." Zuko sighed.

"Let's go teach her a lesson," Sokka muttered and picked his jacket up.

Zukos eyes widened and he stood up. "Wait. What? Guys. We have to rehearse for the dance. This is our first gig!"

But they just beamed themselves out of the garage and Zuko groaned, grabbing his hair and pulling on it in frustation.

Mai came into the studio and Zuko told her about what happend. She seemed shocked but still told Zuko, that she would've wanted to teach her a lesson too. And Zuko did understand them, he really did. But they had to rehearse and also, he didn't want them to get hurt.

So that is way Mai and Zuko followed them to the house, trying to hold them back from doing anthing stupid. 

While Zuko and Mai talked to Ty Lee, who opened the door, the three ghosts, were trying to get their revenge.

***

When the three ghosts walked into the mansion, they were shocked and pissed to see all those platninum records and expensiv stuff, Toph owned. Also she had a lot of big pictures all round her home of herself, which was a lot and Sokka cringed at those pictures. It was tasteless, and a little bit to much to look at.

Sokka shock his head, looking up at the other two. "He recorded 'My Name is Sokka'. _My_ name is Sokka! That doesn't even make sense, she is a girl and that is a boys name!" he yelled and breathed heavily. 

That was the moment when Toph came into the house, running upstairs. Sokka clenched his jaw. A whole new heat of anger washing over him.

She stopped in the middle of the stairs and turned around. 

"Hey, Ty Lee. I'm gonna meditate," she yelled.

"She wears sunglasses indoors," Haru scoffed.

"I'm in the den!" Ty Lee yelled back.

"Cool," Toph said grinning, running upstairs.

"I can't stand her!" Haru breathed out.

Sokka watched her with narrowed eyes, while she walked upstairs. "Time for her past to hunt her."

"Wait," Suki yelled and the other two stopped in their tracks. "Let's not rush this. You know it's my ... first time hunting someone."

She exhaled slowly, with a small smile on her lips. "I wanna make it special."

They just watched her with blank stares.

"Ok, Suki," Sokka said, shaking his head, done with Suki and walked upstairs, Haru following him.

"That was weird. Ok," Suki mumbled to herself and walked after them.

***

Zuko and Mai somehow came inside, asking Ty Lee, if they could get any water, after telling her that they came over to tell her, that Zuko was going to play at the dance tonight, with his band. She rolled her eyes but let them inside. They walked into the living room, seaching for the three ghosts, but found Jet instead.

It was awkward, to say the least. 

Mai told him, the same thing that they told Ty Lee, who walked into the room at that moment, with two glasses of water in her hands.

Zuko wondered for a second if she would poison them, but shook that thought away.

"These idiots bothering you, babe?"

Zuko rolled his eyes, done with Ty Lee, but he was here for a reason.

"No, just telling us about the dance," Jet said and smiled at Zuko.

"Right," Ty Lee grimaced. "Zuko and his hologram band are playing," she chuckled humorless.

"How'd you learn how to do all that hologram stuff anyways?"

Zuko gulped and tried to think of anything. "The internet. It's not just full of makeup tips."

She glared at Zuko, but Jet saved him out of the situation and asked Ty Lee if they would go to the show. 

"Sure, let's check out the hologram show," she smirked.

"Great. I'll make sure all my buddies are there," Jet smiled and Zuko stiffened.

"Oh, how exciting! That's a lot of people starring at you," Ty Lee trailed off.

Zukos stomach clenched and he swollowed hard. They had to rehearse soon, or Zuko would make a fool out of himself.

"You two remember where the door is, right?"

Zuko had to look for the boys, he needed to stay for a few more minutes.

"Yeah," he laughed and leaned forward, so that the water dropped out of the glass and landed on the floor.

"Oh my god. I am so sorry," he said dramatically and held his hand up, when Ty Lee started to stand up. "No, no, no,no. I know where the towles are," he smiled at her and she slumped down against the couch.

"I'll get it."

Zuko walked upstairs, while Mai distracted them, hoping that he would find them quickly and leave. 

"Guys! For your sake, you better not be here," he hissed angrily.

But the three ghosts were. And they messed with Toph, playing with the music player, while she meditated. They blow out the candles and she frowned. She stood up to stop the music, plugging the cable out, because the ghosts played with the volume, putting it on the highest level. She looked around the room in confusion, frowning slightly.

She heard the water in the shower running and walked towards the bathroom. 

"What the hell," she mumbled and turned the water off. 

She wanted to walk out of the bathroom, but stopped when she saw that something was written in the fog, on the mirror.

It said _Hello Toph._ Her heart was beating fast in her chest and she swallowed the lump in her throat. 

„What the fuck was going on?“ she out thought loud.

She rubbed her eyes, hoping that she was just imagining things, but the words were still there. 

She ran towards the door, but it didn't open and she shook her head confused and afraid.

"Let me out!" she screamed anf finally the door opened and she stumbled out, almost falling over. 

Sokka, Haru and Suki laughed at her, while she gasped and grabbed her hair, clearly frustated.

She walked downstairs, shaking her head. "No, no, no. Lin, nothing Dr. Crystal can't handle."

She walked past her daughter and her daughters boyfriend, who were sitting on the couch. "I'm gonna see my therapist, Ok? Ok."

"Oh my god," Ty Lee mumbled and rubbed here temple.

Toph rushed out of the door, running to the helicopter outside.

The three ghosts beamed themselves outside, but the helicopter was already in the air, flying away.

"Oh," Haru gasped. " Quick, let's moon her before she gets to far away."

Sokka grinned and nodded, but Suki scoffed, grimacing.

"She can't see us and also I won't do that."

"Oh it's not for him, Suki. It's for us," Sokka said and pulled his pants down, just like Haru.

Suki rolled her eyes and looked away. 

Zuko took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, when he saw the three ghosts outside in the backyard.

"So, did you guys have fun in there?" Zuko asked and crossed his arms in front of himself.

He was even to mad and disappointed to notice, that he just pulled his pants up. Zuko couldn’t believe them, how old were they, 6?

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Ok, you'd do the excat same if he stole all your songs."

Zuko frowned a little at that. No he definitely wouldn’t do what they just did. "But you have new songs. With me," he said a little hurt.

"The best way to get back at Toph or Lin, whatever, is for this band to do great. And to do great, we have to play at dances, then clubs."

"And tours, I know," Sokka said walking towards Zuko.

Zuko still frowned and looked at all three sternly. "I'll see you guys at the school. We go on at 9. Please don't be late. There's gonna be a lot of people there," Zuko pleaded, still looking sad and a little anxious.

"We got it, all right? Don't worry," Suki said and tried to smile reassuringly, but Zuko didn't smile back.

Zuko just sighed and walked inside.

"I don't care what Zuko says," Haru said, when he was out of sight. "I'm glad that we scared Toph. Wish we'd done more, like ... like written 'thief' on her forhead."

"And, Suki, how did you shut the door? You could barely open a garage door," Sokka said confused, remembering how she held the door shut.

Haru grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at Suki. "Learned that from your new friend, Yue, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Well, she taught me some things, and we screamed in a museum," she smiled happily, but when the boys looked confused, she just shook her head. "It's a long story."

"You think she has a few more tricks up her sleeve?" Sokka asked with hopeful eyes.

Suki shrugged. "Let's find out."

They beamed themselves to the park, where they found Yue skating.

"Hey," she laughed, when she saw Suki, skating towards the three. "What's up? You brought friends."

"Yeah, these are my bandmates, Sokka and Haru," she smiled at Yue.

"Hey, I'm Yue," she said smiling, shaking their hands.

"So ... you guys are here to learn some tricks?" she asked with a raised eyebrow and then she pointed with her finger to a police car and the sirens went off.

Sokka looked in awe at the girl, this was good, but not good enough. He needed more. Toph should feel the same pain, that she caused him and his friends.

"Do it again. Do it again," Haru said excited, but Sokka held him back.

"Actually, we were thinking a little bigger," he grinned mischievously.

"An old bandmate stole from us. We wanna confront him face-to-face."

Yue nodded understandingly. "All right. Is this, uh, old friend of yours a lifer?"

Sokka looked confused, ready to ask what a 'lifer' was, but Suki already started explaining. "Oh, that's a fancy ghost lingo for the living."

She leaned forward and whispered proudly. "That's a little something I picked up."

Sokka saw the warm smile Yue gave Suki and he felt himself smile too. Yue seemed like a nice girl and Suki deserved someone that is nice.

Somehow he ended up thinking about Zuko and how hurt he looked earlier. After their revenge, he would go and apologize. He hated that look on Zukos face, but he had to understand Sokka. He was hurt too, from Tophs actions. And Toph needed to learn a lesson and Sokka wants to give her one, gladly.

And maybe deep down Sokka knew why he thought about the ember eyed boy. Because maybe Sokka wanted to see Zuko smile at him like Yue smiled at Suki, but he wouldn't tell that to anyone. Sokka was a ghost, after all and Zuko wasn't. That would never work.

He was ripped out of his thoughts, by Harus voice.

"Ah! Then, yeah! She's a lifer. Too much of a fancy-pants for street dogs."

"Yeah, I'm sorry," she shook her head. "Speaking to lifers is even out of my league."

Sokkas shoulders slumped down, all three looking disappointed.

Yue bit her lip and then sighed. "You know, but there is one ghost who might be able to help you guys," she started, but she did seem unsure.

Sokka looked at her hopefully.

"He's kind of a big deal," she rushed out.

"Literally, anthing would help," Sokka said nodding.

"Oh, all right. Well, um I gotta go take care of some things, but I'll meet you where Suki and I met, eight o'clock," she smiled again, but it didn't reach her eyes.

The three just nodded, watching Yue skating away.

***

Zuko was walking towards the stage and smiled up at Mai. She was on stage, on the DJ pult enjoying herself.

"Do we have any Bobcats in the house," she asked into the microphone and the students cheered.

"Everybody make some noise."

They cheered again, while they were dancing to the music.

"Ok. Ok. Ok. Not to much noise. There's an anger management meeting down the hall," she said seriouse, pointing at the door and the students laughed.

When she locked eyes with Zuko, she walked to the side, bending down to him. 

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm a little nervouse," he admitted.

She brushed him off with a hand. "You'll be fine. All your gear is backstage. Come on."

"Are the guys here yet?" Mai asked grinning, wiggling her eyebrows at Zuko, when they met backstage.

He huffed out a laugh and shook his head. "No, but they will be. They know how important this is to me."

Or so he hoped. He took a deep breath, calming down a little and tried to smile.

***

Yue was leading them through the halls of a hotel. 

Sokka got a weird vibe from this place, but he still followed her. This place looked old and expensive. And at the same time it was kind of creepy.

"Right this way," she said and gestured forward.

"Woah," Sokka mumbled unsure. "So this is where your hotshot ghost lives. Huh?"

Yue just nodded with a grin on her face.

"Yeah, we've walked past this hotel, like, a million times. How come we've never heard of it" Suki asked confused.

"That's because this area is sealed off for decades," Yue explained. "I mean you wouldn't even know this place exists unless you're invited."

When no one said anything, she nodded. "All right. I gotta go make sure everything is cool, but I'll be right back."

And with that she walked away.

"Hollywood Ghost Club?" Haru asked with a frown, while they walked to the railing, looking down on the people under them. "This place is creepy."

"Yeah, well, so are we," Suki smiled a little, trying to look comforting.

While they were looking down on the people passing, Yue was pacing around anxiously, waiting for the ghost.

She was mumbling to herself reassuring words, trying to calm herself down.

She stopped in her tracks, when she saw him walking down the stairs and cleared her throat. 

"Oh, hey, uhm ..." she started awkwardly. "Long Feng, I brought those ghosts I met? Uhm, it's ... it's still cool they're here right?" she asked unsure, fiddling with her fingers, not meeting his eyes.

"Of course, Yue. I even reserved a special table for them," he said, while holding a cup of tea, drinking out of it.

"Oh," she chuckled confused, but didn't dare to ask why. "All right, uhm ... thank you."

"No, no. Thank you," he grinned.

She nodded and walked to the door, when he was out of sight, a small frown was forming on her face.


	6. The Other Side of Hollywood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please watch that amazing art of Sokka as Luke, I am completely and utterly in love (also the artist has more Julie and the Phantom x ATLA videos you should all check them out!)

[https://www.tiktok.com/@officialaishar/video/6876569361134456070?sender_device=mobile&sender_web_id=6885334160559982086&is_from_webapp=1](https://www.tiktok.com/@officialaishar/video/6876569361134456070?sender_device=mobile&sender_web_id=6885334160559982086&is_from_webapp=1)

Haru sighed and looked at the old people below him. "I don't know about this." he looked unsure, furrowing his eyebrows.

They wore fancy suites and dresses, the clothes reminded them of the '60s. Most of the people were laughing, celebrating each other, dancing or just holding a glass of expensiv wine or champagne.

Sokka hated those people, no he despised them. They probably thought that they were better, then some teenager band.

"Well, if you get scared, you ... you can always hide behind me," Suki offered with a weak smile, she looked nervous and rubbed her hands together. "I'll be behind Sokka."

She stepped behind Sokka, making herself small and looking over his shoulder. Sokka just rolled his eyes. "You guys need to grow up. Ok? We're gonna get back at Toph."

That was the only reason, he was still standing here and he tried to remind himself of that, while his eyes scanned through the rows of people. People that bought overpriced stuff, just to belong. He never understood those people, if he were rich, he would try to help his people with the money, not buy some disgusting wine that costs more than the clothes he wore at the moment

Sokka shook his head. "She needs to pay for what she did to us."

"Yeah," Suki muttered and leaned over to Haru and told him in a hushed voice. "I'm still gonna hide behind him."

Sokka shook his head, not believing how annoying his friends are and then Yue appeared to his side grinning at them.

"We're all good."

"Oh, uh, cool. Hey, just so you know, we have, like, an hour," Suki reminded her. "Because we got a gig with Zuko."

"Oh, yeah. No worries," she said smiling. "Let's go."

They walked towards the stairs, they also looked pretty fancy and expensive, Sokka noticed.

Yue sat herself on the railing and grinned at the other three. "Normally, I'd have my deck, and I'd backboard this heavy 20 set, but tonight ... we have company."

The four of them chuckled at that.

"I hope you guys are ready for this," there was a genuine smile on her lips and she slide down the railing giggling.

"Wow, are you guys seeing what I'm seeing?" Suki asked and looked dumbfounded at the dance floor full of people.

"I think we're a little overdressed," Sokka mumbled and walked downstairs, the other two following him.

A couple came towards them, but before Suki could step to the side, the woman went right through her.

They all starred at the couple, who were walking away. They didn't even looked back and the three ghosts could just stare, with open mouths.

Those were living people? Sokka was shocked and didn't understand, why would those people be here, if this place was for ghosts?

Before Sokka could speak, Haru gasped and grabbed his arm to squeeze it. "Woah! I thought these people were all going to be ghosts."

"These are all lifers," Yue said and pointed to some party guests. 

"Oh, uh, lifers are actually-," Suki started.

"Alive people. I was listening," Haru interrupted her grinning.

"But this is a very exclusive crowd. Everybody here has paid a lot to get a sneak peek at the afterlife."

Sokka was mad, he knew that rich people were weird, but this was too much. _Getting a sneak peek at the afterlife? Who would want that?_ Sokka thought, shaking his head with a bitter expression.

"I always new rich people did weird stuff like this," Haru mumbled deep in thoughts and huge eyes.

A man with a french accent, in a white suit was standing suddenly next to Sokka and he flinched away a little, looking up to the man.

„Ladies and gentlemen, I have a table for you."

They walked towards a table, that was right in front of the stage. Sokka starred in awe at the big stage. 

The man took the reserved sign from the table and walked away, smiling at them, but the smile was somehow distant, not quiet right.

Sokka had enough, he wanted to leave already. "So, who's gonna make us visible so we can confront our old bandmate?"

Yue frowned a little and shook her head slowly. "Oh no, no. None of these lifers have the power to do that."

Sokka gave her a confused look. He didn't know how to respond to that. Would they even get their revenge? He just hoped that this wasn't a bad idea. 

Sokka could hear some instruments playing and Yue grinned and pointed with her chin to the stage. 

"Oh, but here comes the ghost who does," she was smiling happily, but all Sokka could do was blink at her, with a worried expression.

A voice came through the speakers, startling. "Ladies and gentlemen, here comes the dead by popular demand, please welcome Long Feng!"

Yue cheered and clapped her hands, the whole crowed was doing the same. A man with long brown hair and green cold eyes appeared out of nowhere, on the stage. Sokka just watched the man with a frown.

"Did you miss me?" the man grinned cheekily and the crowd cheered again. "I did too!"

Sokka wasn't impressed and just blinked up at the man.

"Welcome to the party of your dreams!" and again the crowd went off. "From the Egyptians to the Druids, to the person sitting next to you, we've all wondered, 'Where do we go when that final light is snuffed out?' Allow me to show you," he grinned and he started to sing.

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_bdMOBzAfw> _

He flew towards their table, he was starring at them with a huge smile, while he sang.

Sokka caught himself, bobbing his head to the music. The man could sing and the song wasn't that bad, but something was off about him, but Sokka pushed that thought away and there was a little smile forming on his lips. He saw Haru starring at the man with huge eyes, also moving to the music.

" _Life is good, On the other side of Hollywood_ ," he sang and made a hand move behind him.

Dancers in colorful customs emerged on stage, as well as a band and Sokka gasped. The crowd went crazy, cheering, applauding and laughing at the mysterious man in front of them.

The man was clearly enjoying himself, laughing and smirking at the crowed, but his focus always lingered a few more seconds at their table.

While he sang, he went to their table and grabbed their tablecloth, grinning at the four knowingly. He pulled it up in a circle motion and suddenly a woman in a pink, glittery custom was dancing on the table. 

Sokka gasped and laughed at the man. He had to admit that this wasn't bad, this was actually pretty cool.

All four ghosts were dancing on their seats, grinning and laughing at each other in awe.

There was a woman hanging form the ceiling in a metal ring doing some acrobatic moves. Haru gasped with big round eyes and stood up, but Sokka pulled him back, rolling his eyes.

When Long Feng was done, all of them except for Haru stood up and clapped in their hands, cheering for the man. Sokka kicked his leg and the boy with the long hair came out of his frozen state and started clapping his hands wildly.

"This is so cool," Haru breathed out with a huge smile playing on his lips.

"Man, dude, I knew I recognized him. He's the guy that bumped into me outside the Orpheum," Suki said with wide eyes.

"Wait. Isn't he that magician dude that died a horrible death doing a trick?" Haru asked with a frown.

"Yeah, I wouldn't really bring that up when we meet him," Suki rolled her eyes, nodding slightly.

"Yeah, but you should come back when he shows one of his movies," Yue suggested with an excited smile. "I mean, for Titanic, he literally floods the entire place. The guy has got some skills."

Sokka nodded. "All right, but he can wave his and make ghosts visible to lifers?"

Yue shrugged. "Told you, the guy's got skills."

"So where'd he go?" Haru asked and looked around for the man and then flinched, when he looked behind Sokka. "Oh wow! Found him!"

Sokka and Suki stood up, to look at the man. His smile was huge, but it didn't reached his green eyes. 

"Hello, kids. Long Feng," he introduced himself and opened his arms, patting Sokka and Suki on their shoulders.

Sokka felt weird, shivering at the contact. He pushed those thoughts away. That man could get them their revenge, and that was the only thing that mattered.

"Welcome to the Hollywood Ghost Club. Enjoying the show?"

"Yo, that was ... I mean ... Did you ... like," Sokka spluttered with excitement in his voice grinning at the man.

He laughed. "I know."

"This is Suki, Sokka and Haru," Yue pointed to each of them smiling.

"Yeah, it's really nice to meet you," Suki said.

"'Sup?" Haru grinned.

"The pleasure is mine. Nothing warms my heart more than sharing this magic with new friends. Please, sit. Sit," he said gesturing to the chairs.

"Thank you for the invite," Suki said and the other two boys nodded in agreement.

"Of course, Of course. Now, my friend Yue tells me that you guys have some magic of your own," he said and looked curious at the three ghosts, his eyes staying on Suki when he finished.

Suki swallowed hard and blushed, starring at the man speechless. She cleared her throat and looked at Yue. "Well, Yue and I? I mean, I wouldn't really call it magic, but, I mean ...," she trailed off, laughing awkwardly.

Yues eyes widened in realization, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks. "Oh no, he means your ghosts abilities. You know, like, to be seen by everybody when you play with Zuko."

There was an awkward silence. Sokka starred at the two girls, his gaze shifting from one to the other and back. He felt bad for Suki, this was awkward.

Sukis eyes ripped open and her gaze snapped back to the man in front of her. "No, totally. Right. No. 'Cause when you said it, I was like, 'Is that what he said?' 'Cause ...," she said in a high-pitched voice, but the man gave her a warm smile and hold his hand up, to stop her.

"Yeah, but we can't really, uh wave our arms and do all this magic stuff," Sokka said, changing the subjekt and Suki gave him a thankful nod.

Long Feng nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I've had some practice. Our gifts are so rare, so special. It's not often I come across other spirts who possess similar talents. It's not a surprise we found each other."

Sokka let out a little breathy laugh. "Yeah, that definitely ..."

"If you'll forgive me, fellas, I gotta go pay the bills, if you know what I'm saying. I'll be back later to chat," he said and stood up, smirking at the four of them.

He patted Sokkas and Sukis shoulders again, and Sokka tried not to flinch away, starring after the man, who walked towards a beautiful woman. 

"I love that dude," Haru said looking after the man. "Please tell me this party's never gonna end."

***

"Is everybody fired up for Zuko and the Phantoms?" Mai asked into the microphone, grinning at the cheering crowd.

Zuko let out a tiny laugh, looking up at her friend, from behind the stage.

"Great! Keep that fire 'cause that's later ... We're a bit behind schedule, but don't worry, just enjoy these mind-blowing beats," she said and turning up the music on the DJ pult.

She looked at Zuko and ran towards him, he raised his eyebrow at her, smiling a little.

"Zuko and the Phantoms?"

She shrugged. "I had some free time in French class. And you'd better like it because I registered it on Insta, Snapchat, Twitter ..."

Zuko put his hand on her shoulder, to stop her speech, giving her a genuine smile. "No, I love it. But I'd love it even more if the actual Phantoms were here."

He was pissed. They promised Zuko to be there in time, but they were already 20 minutes late. Zuko felt his stomach drop, when he realized that they would be late. He felt betrayed. What happened, that was more important, than this gig? Ok, to be fair, there are a lot of things, but they were ghosts, whatever happened to them, Zuko thought, it was probably something stupid.

Mai looked like she wanted to say something, but her eyes focused on something behind Zuko. She pointed with her finger behind Zuko and walked away.

Zuko turned around with a frown, confused and his eyes widened at the person coming towards him.

"Jet," he said and chuckled awkwardly, he panicked and turned around, to stop Mai, but she was nearly at the curtains of the stage. "Look, Mai, it's Jet."

He laughed. "Thanks for the introduction."

Zuko bit his lip and looked at the ground. "So, you made it."

"Wouldn't miss it. The truth is I can't wait to see you play again. Your song has been stuck in my head for weeks."

Zuko laughed at that and looked up at Jet, to see him already smiling. "Well, someone should let it out."

Zuko shut his mouth with wide eyes, Jet just furrowed his eyebrows, looking confused.

"I don't know what that meant, either."

Jet just chuckled and looked at Zukos shoes. "I like your shoes."

Zuko looked at his shoes in confusion, and he remembered drawing on them. It was stupid he knew that, but it was also a lot of fun, doodling on them.

"Thanks. I just like to doodle on them sometimes," he shrugged, but there was a faint blush building on his cheeks.

He looked up and Jet starred into his eyes, a small smile on his lips. In the past view weeks, Zuko saw some changes in the boy in front of him. He seemed more like himself, laughing more, talking more to Zuko and Zuko liked it. 

They stood inches apart, if either one of them would lean forward, they would kiss. That thought, made Zukos blush worse.

Blue eyes, pushed those thoughts away, though.

He was ripped out of his thoughts, when he heard someone coming towards them and sighed, when he saw Ty Lee. 

Zuko rolled his eyes, when she started talking. "I can't tell if the crowd is getting restless or bored. Never a good sign."

She looked at Zuko like she just realized, he was there too. "Oh, hi, Zuko. Got a new bag." she asked and looked at the machine in Zukos right hand, with a raised eyebrow.

"Actually, it's my hologram projector. Just did a little upgrade," he said and hold the projector up.

"Oh, so simple," she said with a raised eyebrow. "You know, I was expecting something a little more ... sophisticated."

"It's what's on the inside that counts," Zuko scoffed.

She snickered, shaking her head. "Yeah, that's what a lot of people have to tell themselves."

Zuko and Jet were still silent and she just huffed. "Come on, Jet."

She walked away and Jet smiled at Zuko again, before he turned around to follow her.

Zuko looked towards the stage, sighing deeply, hoping that the three ghost would appear soon rather than later.

This was bad, really really bad. How could they be already 20 minutes late. He still had a little bit hope,though. Maybe they needed to rehearse again and lost track of time? Zuko rubbed his face in frustation. He new that this would be a bad idea, he should've never agreed to play tonight.

***

"They made eight more Star Wars movies, and they killed Han Solo?" Haru scoffed and looked at the two lifers in front of him in shock.

Sokka just sighed, throwing his head back in annoyance. 

"What kind of future is this?" Haru groaned and walked away.

Sokka thought about running after him, but stopped himself and looked at the two poeple. "We found that out, like two weeks ago, Ok? We just didn't have the heart to tell him. But just _please_ don't mention Jar Jar," he pleaded.

***

"That was one crazy show, " Suki smiled at Yue. "So I'm guessing all these lifers are, like, sworn to secrecy or something?"

"Or ... something, yeah," Yue mumbled. "Let's just say Long Feng's offered everyone here, with their membership, the opportunity to exprience this for eternity. And they've all happily accepted."

Suki just nodded, her smile disappearing a little. "And all these ghosts, they just wanna, like, party forever and never cross over?"

"I mean, yeah. Why would you wanna cross over when you can just ... hang out and, you know do this, forever," Yue said starring into Sukis eyes.

When Suki just nodded, Yue tried again. "There's a lot to, uhm ... like here."

With that Yue stood up and walked away. Suki could just blink after her, her heart was pounding fast in her chest and she felt herself blush.

She really liked that girl and maybe she like Suki back? Well, that's what she was hoping for, at least.

"Oh, you got a crush on Yue," Sokka grinned, leaning over a chair.

"What? No. No man, we're just ...," she trailed of embarrassed, it was a little weird talking to your ex boyfriend, about your crush, but Sokka stopped her.

"Suki, I'm happy for you," he said with a genuine smile and Suki let out a relieved breath.

Haru came to the table with a bitter expression. "You guys are not gonna believe this, but someone just told me they added a character named Jar Jar. What's a Jar Jar?" he cried out confused.

Before anyone could answer, Long Feng was standing in front of them, opening his arms with a smirk on his lips. "I take it you guys are enjoying yourselves?"

"Yeah, I mean you'd have to be insane to have a bad time here," Sokka said truthfully and he did like it, but there was still that nagging voice in his head, telling him that something is wrong, but he again just ignored it, and smiled at the man.

"Well, entertainment is our specialty. So, now I understand there's something I can help you with."

"Yeah, we hope so," Haru said. "There's an old friend of ours who ripped us off big time, and we wanna make things right."

"Yeah," Sokka said sternly, frowning. "We wanna look her in the eyes and make her admit what she did to us."

Suki nodded furiously. "So if you could make us visible, that would be perfect."

Long Feng laughed, but it sounded wrong in Sokkas ears. "Well, sure, I could do that, but we're at a party." he looked at the three ghosts, all looking disappointed and frowning at the man. "Why focus on those who have wronged us when we're among friends? Now, I understand that the three of you are talented musicians. I doubt ... your dream is to settle a score."

When they still didn't smile back, Long Feng tried again. "No, your dreams are bigger than that! You're like me, born to perform you music in front of sold-out crowds."

He snapped his fingers and the man with the white suite and french accent came to them. Long feng gestured again to the chairs. "Please, sit."

All three sat down with curious looks on their faces. Sokka thought, that this sounded to good to be true, there must be a catch.

"What if I were to tell you that with a wave of my hand, you could share the spotlight with me ... and join my house band?"

Sokka immediately frowned, no way, they already had a perfectly good, no, amazing band with Zuko.

Sokka chuckled. „We ... We already have a band."

"Yes. Yes," he said and nodded, there was excitement in his voice. "but when you're done performing, you disappear. You cease to exist. No bows. No ... no soaking up the applause," he said and with every new sentence, Sokkas stomach dropped, he was kind of _right_. "No real conncetion with the audience. Yeah? Here the audience knows what you are, and more importantly, they know how special you are."

Sokka looked with big eyes to the man, who was offering something big, something amazing and Sokka thought for a second, maybe they could do that?

"Well, it could be cool to play here," he shrugged with an unsure smile.

"Oh, it ... it's not just here," Long Feng assured and they all looked at him, waiting patiently to continue. "We party like this all over the world. Tonight, Hollywood. Tomorrow, Paris."

And this was everything that they all ever wanted. They just had to agree.

"Oh la la," Haru breathed out, with wide eyes. 

"It is ... all of your dreams come true ... forever."

They just look at him gaping and speechless. 

_Forever._ Sokka thought, this was it, this was what he always wanted and dreamed about. Now he could have it, it sounded so good. He was offering the world to them.

But there was something, screaming at him in his mind, but he couldn't tell, what the voice was saying, well more like pleading. 

"I'm gonna give you some time to think about it," he stood up, but didn't go away. "Oh, by the way, make sure you try the sliders. They're to die for."

"W-We can .. eat?" Haru sputtered and Long Feng just nodded, snapping his fingers again.

"Here you can."

Three waiters put three full plates of stacked up hot dogs, buggers and pizza on the table. 

Sokkas eyes ripped open and his mouth wattered. This was heaven.

He immediately reached out to grab a burger, but Suki grabbed his wrist and starred at him with wide eyes. "Wait," he waited for her to tell them, that maybe they shouldn't eat this and this was maybe a trap, but instead she said "I want the one without cheese."

Haru was already inhaling a hotdog and Sokka stuffed his mouth with two slices of pizza, nearly chocking on them, but he didn't care, because this was to good too be true. He felt like he was dreaming, he felt _alive._

They were groaning and moaning, stuffing their mouths full with the food. They spoke with full mouths and it was kind of disgusting watching them, but the three didn't care.

***

Zuko was now sitting on the floor and Mai shook her head at her friend, at how pathatic he looked.

"I can only stall for so long, It's eleven o'clock," she said furious. "I think you should just play by yourself. I mean, holograms or no holograms, you'll be amazing."

"You saw me the other day," Zuko said frustated and shaking his head. "I can't play without them. They'll be here. They, have to."

She looked like she didn't believe him, but walked again onto the stage and if Zuko is being honest, he didn't believed himself.

This was ridiculous. No he was ridiculous, for believing them, believing Sokka, that the would be here. They were now two hours late. Zuko was mad at them, but while the minutes passed, he felt more and more disappointed than mad. Why would they treat him like this? Were they just joking with him, when they told him, that they wanted him to join the band? Zukos heart clenched, thinking about this possibility.

_Sokka wouldn't do that to him, right?_

"Issues?" someone, asked behind him. 

He looked up to Jet, who sat down beside him.

"Always," Zuko laughed, but it sounded sad and bitter. "My machine won't work."

Jet picked the profector up, but Zuko stopped him, putting his hand on top of it and pressed it back down. "You don't have to."

He sat it back down with a frown and put the cable into his hands, pulling on it until it reached the end, which was in Zukos hands.

"Here’s the problem," he said confused and took the end out of Zukos hands.

Zuko sighed, why was he even here? He liked Jet, but right know, he needed Sokka, Suki and Haru, not him.

He plugged the end in and turned the projector on. He gave Zuko a side glance and stood up.

"That's unless you didn't want it plugged in."

Zuko looked away, with a scwol on his face. Jet chuckled lightly and held his hand out for Zuko to take it. He sighed and took the hand and Jet pulled him up.

"Hey, don't let this crowd freak you out. What I saw last time you played was insane," Jet reassured him and Zuko could only smie softly at him.

He needed this, after his band stood him up, in the wrost moment possible. Jet was here for him, this was good, this felt good, but Zuko thought that something was missing.

_Yeah, well, his band for starters._

You got this," he said with a smile and Zukos heart picked up his speed.

"I knew you had it in you," he said and walked towards the stage, grabbing the microphone out of Mais hand and Zukos eyes widened in realization. 

_Oh no._

"Wait. What."

"Hey everyone," he yelled into the microphone. "We fixed the hologram thing. Who wants to see a show?"

The students cheered and Zuko gave Jet a glare, not believing this guy. He shook his head angrily.

"Now ... give it up ... for Zuko and the Phantoms!"

Zuko clenched his jaw and walked onto the stage and took the microphone. He swallowed the lump in his throat and looked to the crowd.

"Hi," Zuko started unsure and some people laughed. 

_Oh god._

"So here's the thing," he chuckled nervously. "Even though we got the machine fixed, thanks to jet," he said laughing dryly and the people cheered for Jet.

"I can't seem to link up with the guys," he laughed awkwardly. "Wi-Fi, am I right?"

But nobody laughed and they all seemed a little bit disappointed and Zuko had to swallow, he let them down, just like his band let him down.

"I'm sorry, but ...," he started and hoped that he wouldn't cry in front of these people. "I'm gonna have to cancel."

Their expression changed into disbelief and some people were asking why and Zuko didn't had an answer, he wished he had one.

"What?" "Are you serious?" "Why?"

Zuko was just tried, angry and embarrassed. He wanted to go home and lay in his bed, crying.

Ty Lee walked onto the stage, with a smirk, while Jet looked sadly at Zuko and then curiously at his girlfriend.

"Anybody know the Heimlich?" she asked and then starred at Zuko, right into his eyes. "Zuko is choking."

The students laughed and he could just frown at the girl, not knowing what to say.

This was so much wrose than he had imagined this night. He thought maybe, he would forget some lyrics, but this was worse, it was humiliating.

She walked up to him and grabbed the microphone out of his hands. "Only one way to save this dance. Who wants to see Dirty Candy?" she asked the crowd and they cheered again.

Mai scoffed in disbelief and when Ty Lee reached out to the DJ pult, Mai grabbed one of the buttons and broke it. "Opps, knob's broken."

The students groaned and Ty Lee sneered at them. "Ok. Two can play this game. Party at my house!"

The students cheered again and Ty Lee dropped the microphone in front of Zuko, walking to the steps of the stage. She was waiting for Jet to help her down. He looked with a sad expression towards Zuko and then back to Ty Lee. He looked confused and frowned a little, but took her hand and with that, they walked away and the whole students with them.

Zuko felt numb and this feeling wasn’t good. The last time he felt numb, his mother had passed away.

"Well that kinda backfired," Mai sighed deeply and put her hand around Zukos shoulders.

He was so done, he just wanted to go home.

***

The ghosts were still eating, until Long Feng walked onto the stage. "I take it you're all enjoying the feast."

The crowd cheered. "So many delicious sights. So many tantalizing sounds. But your eyes still hunger for more. Something sweet. Something ... savory." he walked up some stairs on the stage and looked at the crowd. "How many newcomers do we have in the club tonight?"

All three ghosts put their hands up, while Sokka was still eating. 

The meal was amazing and he never felt so good and full. He still thought about the offer, but something just bothered him about it and he couldn't figure out what it was.

"Ladies let's show our guests how we do dessert," and with that Long Feng sang again, this time Sokka couldn't hold himself back and joined in, but he wasn't the only one hooked, because Suki grinned mouthing the words of the song and Haru was dancing on his seat, until a woman in a red glittery custom grabbed him and danced with him. He nearly fainted and Sokka held him, steadying him.

Two other woman in blue customs came towards Sokka and Haru and grabbed them, to dance with them and they let them.

Suki stood there, on her own looking for Yue, scanning the rows of people. A few men came up to her, trying to dance with her but she shook her head at them and they left. 

"Come now. You can't be the only one at the party not dancing," Long Feng said with a huge grin.

"No, I ... I know. I'm just ... I'm looking for Yue," she strumbled out, but he ignored her and called out two names and two women came up to her. 

They grabbed her, before she could protest and took her to the dance floor.

She didn't see how Long Feng looked coolly at Yue and pointed for her to leave. Yues face fell and she walked out of the room with a frown on her face.

Sokka was dancing and laughing with the woman in his arms, but when his eyes caught a clock on the wall he gasped and stumbled back.

_Oh no, Zuko._

It was now 12 am. Zuko said their gig was at 9 pm. He is so fucked.

He looked around, trying to find Haru and Suki. "Zuko," he mumbled a few times, not believing himself. 

"How ... How'd that happen?" yelled confused, grabbing his hair in frustation and shoving the woman away with an apologic smile.

He punched Harus arm, hard. "Dude! We lost track of time," he said still confused, how could that fucking happen?

His stomach twisted and he felt sick. This was really, really bad.

"Not right now, man," Haru said still dancing with the woman.

This was enough, he picked him up and placed him in front of the clock.

"Haru," he grumbled angrily. "We were supposed to be at Zuko's school at 9."

Realization hit Haru and his eyes widened. "Oh shoot. That's right. Maybe we can still make it. Where's Suki. Suki we forgot ..."

"Up here," she yelled and they looked up to find her on the metal ring, she looked panicked. „Zuko. I know. This place is ... one sec," she tried to get of off the thing, but it didn't work and Sokka was now frustated. "This place is some kind of time wrap."

Sokka couldn't believe how stupid they were, and he was sure that they wouldn’t make it in time.

„Poof down here, Suki. We gott get going," he hissed through gritted teeth, practically begging her.

They ran to the exit, when Suki finally came down, but Sokka stumbled back, when Long Feng appeared in front of them.

"What's the rush?" he asked. "The party is just getting started. And you have an eternity, after all."

"You know that boy who can see us? We sort of bailed on him," Haru winced. "There's this dance at his school and his friend Mai is a super cool DJ, like-"

"Ok, I don't think he has an eternity to hear the story," Suki interrupted him, frowning.

"Basically, we are late for a gig," Sokka sighed, frustated with himself. 

How could he do that to Zuko. He felt so bad.

He looked sternly at the three ghosts. "But what about my offer?"

"It's very cool of you Mr. Feng, but like I said we already have a-" Sokka started.

"A band of your own," Long Feng said and nodded. "I understand."

They grinned up at him and wanted to leave, but his voice stopped them.

"Oh guys, if you ever wanna come back and fix that little problem with your friend, the Hollywood Ghost Club is always open," he smiled at them, it was a cold smile though, but the three didn’t notice.

"Yeah, man we'd love to come back," Sokka said with hope in his eyes, grinning at the man.

_Maybe he wasn't that bad._

"Ah! Music to my ears," he said and held his hand out for Sokka, who immediately took it and shook it, but a purple circle appeared on his wrist and Sokka frowned, looking up at the man, while he shook the hands of Haru and Suki, all three having a pruple circle now on their wrists, looking confused.

The circle went through their wrist and disappeard, and Sokkas frown only deepend, while he rubbed his wrist.

"Oh it's just a little club stamp," Long Feng brushed off, waving his hand in the air.

"Oh, cool," Haru chuckled a little unsure.

Long Feng nodded. "Until next time."

"Peace," Sokka smirked and walked out of the hotel.

"See you around," Haru said and followed Sokka. 

Suki looked nervously smiling, at Long Feng. "Uh, if Yue asks, uh not that she would, but if she does, will you let her know that I was looking for her?"

He smiled and nodded and Suki grinned. "Thanks," with that she walked out.

Yue saw how Suki left and walked up to Long Feng, nervously. "Um, ... Long Feng, you never said you were gonna ... use your stamp. You know what that'll do to them."

He raised one eyebrow smirking coolly. "Of course I do, Yue."

Yues heart dropped and she flinched away. 

"But they are to powerful. I need them working for me. Now they'll have no other option but to accept my invitation."

He patted her had and walked away, leaving a dumbfounded Yue behind. She wanted to cry, this was bad. 

_What did she do?_

***

Zuko and Mai were popping angrily the ballons in the gym. Everyone was gone by now. Zuko was exhausted and his ghost friends never came. He was a little bit afraid, but again, what could have possibly held them back form coming here, for a stupid little song, he just needed them for four minutes tops, and they couldn't even do that for him?

"I can never show my face at this school again."

"That's what we got for depending on boys ... and one girl."

Zuko let out a deep sigh, rubbing his hand on his forhead. "I don't know if I should be mad or worried. They're ghosts I don't know what kind of trouble they can get into."

"I'mma get us some ice cream from the cafetaria," Mai smiled sympathically at Zuko, rubbing his from arm and stood up. "Fools gave me the keys. We can crash at my palce and forget about this whole nightmare."

The moment she was gone, Zuko let his head fall into his hands sighing and shaking his head. He rubbed his eyes hard.

 _This was indeed a fucking nightmare_ , Zuko thought.

A door opened and Zuko looked up, just to see the three ghosts running into the empty room.

"Zuko, we are ready to rock this dance," Haru said excited but his voice got smaller and smaller, looking around. "Which is clearly over."

Zuko stood up and exhaled sharply. He clenched his fists and frowned at them deeply. 

Sokka walked carefully towards him, with an apologic smile on his face, but the smile fell, when he saw Zukos expression.

"Look, we are ... so, so sorry that we bailed on you," he said with pleading eyes.

"Yeah, I mean, the night really got away from us," Suki mumbled.

"Just please tell me it had nothing to do with you getting back at Ty Lee's mom," he begged and he looked exhausted, Sokka noticed.

"Pfft, of course not," Sokka scoffed nervously.

"No, we wouldn't do that," Suki brushed him off in a high-pitched voice and Haru shook his head furiously. "Us? no."

"Serouisly," Zuko scoffed disappointed. "You are lying to me?"

He looked so sad and broken in that moment and Sokka wanted to hug him, but he couldn't and it broke his heart.

"Ok, look it was something we needed to do," Suki tried with a soft voice, but Zuko didn't answer and just blinked at them.

"B-but we'll do whatever it takes. We'll play the next school-"

"What?" Zuko asked confused with a hard voice and looked at Sokka with a bitter smile. "Another dance were you can bail on me and make me look like a fool?"

All three looked at the boy sadly, feeling bad for their actions.

Sokka winced at Zukos voice, it was shaky and horas, like he was close to crying, right there in front of Sokka, _because of Sokka_. 

"Save it. You know what really sucks?" he asked and his voice cracked, and Sokkas heart clenched in his chest, he wanted to reach out to Zuko so badly.

"Our songs were good," Zuko felt himself tear up, but he didn't care anymore. "And all three of you know what I've been through, and how tough it's been for me to play, and then you do this?" he yelled at them, wincing at his own voice, trying to hold back the sobs, that were building up in his throat.

He looked sadly at all three of them, there was so much disappointment in his eyes. "Bands don't do that to each other. _Friends_ don't do that to each other."

Zuko shook his head and Sokkas heart broke, they were friends, and he fucked up. He was the reason, for the pain Zuko felt right now. _He_ made Zuko _cry_.

"This was a mistake."

Sokka flinched back. "You mean the school dance, right?" he asked with a small voice. 

"No," Zuko said sternly and looked directly into Sokkas eyes. "I mean joining a band with you guys."

That hurt. Sokka thought, it hurt so much to hear these words coming out of Zukos mouth. Zuko took a shaky, deep breath and ran towards the exit. Sokka stumbled backwards shaking his head.

"Zuko ...," he called after him, voice so small, that it was nearly a whisper. "Zuko!"

But he didn't turn around and Sokka let him leave. He probably needed space. 

"Well, if ... if Zuko's not in the band, then ...," Haru started.

"There is no band," Sokka said, but then flinched back, pain shoot into his chest and he winced, holding the spot were it still stinged, all three were groaning in pain, gasping for air.

Sokka shut his eyes, trying to breath evenly again, but it hurt so much. 

"What was that?" Suki asked breathless, holding her stomach.

"It felt like we were dying all over again," Haru gasped.

Sokka frowned. "How can we die, if we are already dead?"

They looked at each other afraid and confused.

_What just happened?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this fic so far, quick question though, are the chapters too long? And if you have something that is bothering you (about this fic), could you tell me, so that I can try and fix it?
> 
> Leave kurdos and comments (only if you want) so that I can see if you like it or not :)!  
> Next chapter will be fucking heartbreaking :( (if you watched the show, you‘ll know why)


	7. Finally Free

Zuko was late. He was a panting mess, running through the halls in the school, trying to reach the gym, were his dance class already started. His teacher would be probably pissed, but it wasn't his fault that he was late. He slept at Mai's place, and she had the fucking audacity to not wake him up. He also missed an exam, Uncle Iroh will be disappointed. He pushed those thoughts away and ran.

When he reached the door, he already could hear his teacher giving the class instructions. Zuko tried to catch his breath and walked into the gym.

"Oh, Zuko, how nice of you to join us," she said with a bitter tone in her voice.

Zuko sighed and walked up to his teacher with a pleading look on his face. "I'm so sorry. I overslept."

She just rolled her eyes but nodded and gestured for him to go to his spot. "Take your spot."

Zuko went to his spot with a sigh and narrowed his eyes at Mai, when he caught her eyes. But Mai just grinned happily at him, which didn't tame Zukos anger.

He grinned at her bitterly. "So, why didn't you wake me up? I missed my first three classes."

He starred at her in disbelief, but she just shrugged. 

"You said, you were never gonna show your face at school again," she explained. "And I'm a very literal person."

He sighed not quiet believing how stupid she is, for believing Zukos words during his outburst yesterday. But he wasn't mad at Mai, he was mad at those stupid ghosts. He clenched his fists and tried to calm himself down. _Try not to think about them,_ Zuko told himself, while he went through the instructions of his teacher.

"It's ok. It's those stupid ghosts that I'm really upset at," Mai just starred at him sympathetically. "I'd kill them if they weren't already dead."

"Having a band is supposed to help your social life, not ruin it," she grimaced.

"Ex-Band," Zuko scoffed and looked at her with a glare.

She stopped dancing and looked apologetically at him. "Right. Sorry. Ex-Band."

"It's all so messed up. I thought they were in this with me. But obviously, I was wrong."

And he cried himself to sleep last night, while Mai was already asleep, he didn't dare to wake her up, he didn't wanted her to see him like that. That some stupid ghosts, that he just met, could break him as much as they did. It hurt so bad, knowing, that the reason why they didn't came, was for their stupid revenge, even though Zuko begged them, not to do something like that. 

Now Zuko just felt numb and stupid. Stupid for believing them. Stupid for trusting them. Stupid for getting hurt by them. 

"Hey," Mai said softly. "Don't blame yourself."

But it was his fault, wasn't it? Trusting them was his fault, building a band with them, was his fault. _Still liking them, after they hurt him, was his fault._

"You can only be so strong when three cute ghosts ask you to join a band," she smirked, wiggling her eyebrows at Zuko. "And speaking of cute, have you talked to Jet today? He was pretty chatty at the dance."

He frowned and shook his head. "No, and I'm kinda dreading it. At least I know I won't see him in this class."

But the universe hated Zuko and when he bent down and looked through his legs, he saw the whole basketball team walking in, including Jet.

 _Of fucking course,_ Zuko thought.

"You've got to be kidding me," Zuko muttered under his breath.

"What?" Mai asked and she stood up. Her eyes widened when she saw Jet and she gave Zuko a confused expression.

"What are they doing here?" he whispered-shouted and jumped upright and tried to smooth his shirt, while he walked next to Mai.

"Right on time, Coach Barron," his teacher said and walked to the Coach. "So, students, Coach Barron and I have decided that his basketball team will be part of our class for a few weeks."

Zuko grimaced and saw, that nearly everyone of the basketball team had a similar reaction to that.

"Many pro athletes have used dance to help them with coordination and mobility."

"This isn't about flirting with girls and boys," Coach Barron interrupted and the basketball team snickered, while Zukos frown only deepened.

"It's about making us better so we can actually win a game," he said sternly with a pointed look at his team. "We lost against Burbank. Burbank!"

Some of the team flinched at the hard voice of their coach, and Zuko tried not to laugh at them. This was somewhat amusing to Zuko, seeing the team like that, so small and quiet. He looked over to Mai, who was equally trying hard not to laugh.

"Well, let's all remember that composure is a big part of dance," his teacher said, trying to break the awkward silence. "Everybody pair up."

Zukos eyes ripped open and he looked at Mai, who just shrugged half heartily. 

"Let's go," the coach yelled and the boys searched for partners. 

He was in fact the only boy in the Dance class and maybe, he could pair up with Mai, but a guy was walking towards them, looking at Mai and he shook his head.

"No, no!" Zuko pleaded, but the guy took Mais hand with a grin.

"Come on, Mai," he said and she smiled at Zuko, walking away with the guy.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, but he didn't believed her one word.

"Don't leave me," he pleaded, but they were already gone.

"Hey," someone said beside him and Zuko turned around to see Jet, grinning at him.

_Oh no, no, no._

"Hey, you," Zuko exclaimed awkwardly, rubbing his wrist nervously.

"So, ladies, let's do what we learned last week," his teacher said, and Zuko rolled his eyes, he was still a guy, but that's what you get for showing up late to class. "And we will perform this with the boys this Friday. Coach Barron and I will demonstrate," she grinned.

His eyes widened and he laughed slightly, shaking his head. "No, I don't dance. So ...-"

"You do now," she said sternly and shoved him, behind herself.

She explained the moves, while Jet positioned himself, behind Zuko, after they agreed, that Zuko would be doing the girl part. "And jump out and bounce, and snake."

Zuko did the moves half heartily, feeling awkward. There was a weird tension in the air, between the two and Zuko didn't dare to say anything. He would probably make the awkwardness worse.

"Reach up and turn around. Boys jump out," the teacher said and Jet jumped up, turning around, and landed with unsteady feet on the floor, with a grunt.

A few boys fell and Zuko heard some girls giggling. He looked over at Jet who smiled at him unsure.

"Let's do it again. Half-time, no music," his teacher shouted.

Zuko turned to Jet with a raised eyebrow. "You ready for this?"

"Sure, uh ... my little sister throws a lot of princess dance parties," Jet smiled, which made Zuko chuckle lightly.

"Five, six, seven, eight," the teacher started and Zuko and Jet began to dance,

He smiled a little, when he saw that Jet already got the dance moves. Jets eyes met Zukos and he also started grinning.

"Not so bad, Your Majesty," Zuko laughed.

Jet chuckled, but there was a faint blush creeping up his neck. "Thank you."

"So, about last night's dance," Jet mumbled hesitatingly and Zukos smile faded away.

"Yeah," he breathed out. "I was kind of hoping that if I didn't talk about it, it'd be like it never happened."

Jet grabbed his hands and turned him around. "You'll be fine, ok? You're tough. You've been through way worse."

Zuko laughed, but gasped when Jet pushed him to harshly forward and their chests bumped into each other. Zuko grabbed his shoulders to steady himself. They looked into each others eyes and Zuko felt himself blush and he quickly pushed himself of off Jet, who just starred with wide eyes at Zuko, breathing hard.

"Woah, uhm ... Sorry I," he trailed off flustered.

"Really good. One more, with music," his teacher yelled and Zuko ignored Jet and positioned himself again, in front of him.

They began to dance again and Zuko couldn't stop thinking about how close Jet was. He felt his heart beating faster and the blush never left his face. They were so close and Zuko didn't know how to feel about it. Only the closeness and Zukos embarrassment made him blush, not Jet, not because they danced together. Two weeks ago he would have probably swoon in Jets arms and maybe even tried to kiss him, but he didn't and he didn't even thought about it. His mind was somewhere else and Zuko didn't dare to admit to himself, that his thoughts were by a ghost, with blue eyes, _who bailed on him for his stupid revenge._

"I'm just ... I'm not used to dancing like this," he looked embarrassed and Zuko scoffed.

"You and Ty Lee never dance together?"

"No, and we never will. We broke up," he said shrugging and Zukos eyes open wide.

"Oh ... You did?" he said hesitatingly.

"I'm ... done with the drama," he laughed lightly and Zuko couldn't help but smile too.

"And I don't know if you noticed, but she's not the nicest person."

"What?" Zuko gasped, but rolled his eyes with a laugh. "I never noticed."

Jet just laughed and tried the last step of his part, were he had to twirl in the air, but he fell on the ground with a grunt.

He bit his lip and looked up to Zuko, who crossed his arms and laughed at him.

"Uh ... You sure you wanna be partners?"

"No. I ... I want you," Zuko said, but when he realized what he said, his eyes widened in embarrassment.

Jet raised one eyebrow and a smirk was forming on his lips.

"To be my dance partner!" Zuko rushed out and laughed awkwardly, while rubbing his neck.

Jets smirk got bigger, but Zuko ignored him and held his hand out for Jet, to pull him up.

"Let's just ... go over it again. We'll get it eventually," Zuko said and pulled him up, when Jet finally took his hand.

***

"Oh, great angle. Yeah," Haru said and peaked at the display on the phone of the woman, who was taking a picture of her coffee.

They were currently in a cafè and Suki and Haru were sitting on a table with a lifer, watching her.

The woman took another picture and Haru nodded, approvingly. "Now that's a good pic."

"Is this what we're here for?" Suki scowled. "To watch people take pictures of food?"

Haru just ginned. "It's fun. Watch this. People never stop looking at their phones."

He grabbed the plate, that was in front of the woman and he pushed it around the table, not letting the woman grab the plate. She was reaching out for it, but missed every time, while her eyes were stilled glued to her phone. 

He finally stopped and she took the plate, watching confused around her. She stood up and left.

Suki laughed lightly and shook her head. 

"Sokka said something about this place being a hot spot for music industry people," Haru said and Suki just nodded.

Sokka smirked when the person in front of him left the papers for signing up for the ‚New Music Night’ on the table. He grinned to himself and took the pen into his hand.

"Yes!" Sokka wrote their name on the paper and left to sat himself next to his friends.

"Guys, being a ghost definitely has its privileges. I just wrote our names on the playlist for tonight."

Suki leaned forward on the table and looked at Haru. "I'm getting a little worried about him," she whispered and then narrowed her eyes at Sokka, her voice getting louder and more annoyed. "He keeps forgetting that Zuko quit the band."

"And he's gonna come back as soon as he knows we have a great gig," Sokka argumented. 

"But if he doesn't come back, let's not forget, we do have somewhere else we can play and eat pizza," Haru added.

"Dude I know. It was awesome to be seen by lifers at Long Fengs party, but ..."

He was the whole night awake, trying to think of a way to fix this thing with Zuko. He hated the look on the boys face, so broken and sad and he would do everything and anything, to not see that look on Zuko again, it pained Sokka. Sokka felt stupid and Zuko was right, they had a perfect band and they didn't need another one. He finally understood what Zuko wanted to tell him, he didn't need the revenge, they had each other and now he ruined everything, just because Sokka wanted revenge, it was stupid. He hoped that this gig would make Zuko happy again. Make him smile again.

When he finally came up with this idea, he prayed that this would work, and if he is being honest, he was afraid that it wouldn't work.

"But we got this with Zuko. We don't need him," Sokka said softly, but then he was pushed backwards with so much force that it hurt his back, a pain shooting to his chest and he groaned, holding his chest, trying to catch his breath, but it hurt to much. It almost felt like he was struck by lightning.

It hurt so much, it was barely bearable and he looked to his friends, who had the same expressions on their faces.

"It's the same thing again," Suki gasped and rubbed her left side.

"It's just like yesterday," Sokka muttered in pain.

"It feels like the time I was fixing my amp in the rain," Haru mumbled deepening thoughts and Suki looked at him shocked.

"You shouldn't," she whispered, but shook her head and looked to Sokka. "Ok. Look, you think something's wrong with us?"

Sokka nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, we ate ten pounds of pizza yesterday without a stomach. I'm sure it's just our bodies working through it," he said, trying to look reassuring.

It was the only reasonable explanation, in Sokkas mind.

"So we are just gonna forget about getting back at Toph?" Haru asked confused. "That bitch stole our music."

"And she has to live with that guilt," Sokka sighed, he finally understood what Zuko meant, when he told him that they should stop getting revenge. Their revenge is getting big as a band, together with Zuko, while Toph would (hopefully) feel guilty.

"It's just like what Zuko said. We have a new band, a new sound, ok? That's what we should be focusing on," Sokka said.

Suki looked outside the window and her eyes widened. "Isn't that Yue?"

The two boys turned around, just to see the girl skating away. Suki stood up and ran outside, looking for the girl, but she couldn't find her.

"Well, someone's not focusing on our music," Haru smirked and Sokka chuckled slightly, looking outside to his friend, who still looked for the girl.

***

Yue skated as fast as she could away from the café, when she realized that the three caught her starring. She even skated faster, when she saw Suki running outside of the cafè and search for her.

Yue couldn't face her anymore. She felt guilty, she was the reason for their pain. This was Yues fault and she couldn't fix it. 

She stopped in her tracks, when she saw Long Feng standing in front of her with crossed arms and a stern, cold look on his face. She swallowed the lump in her throat and picked up her skateboard, walking nervously to the man. 

"Hello, Yue," he mumbled and rubbed her sweaty hand on her pants.

"Long Feng, hi. Uhm ... I-I was actually just-"

"Checking on the three ghosts for me?" he interrupted her and laughed, but it sounded bitter. "How is my band doing?"

"Well, they're flickering," she stumbled out and then a pained laugh escaped her lips. "Just like you wanted them to."

He grinned. "Wonderful."

He turned around to walk away, but he stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at Yue with narrowed eyes. "Oh, and Yue, the next time you want to check on the guys for me, let me know."

Yue winced at the cold harsh voice, but nodded. "Yeah, my bad."

"You do love skating the streets of Hollywood. I would hate to have to take that away from you," he said and with that he was gone, leaving a speechless Yue behind.

She swallowed hard and tried her best to not cry. 

***

Zuko walked into the studio, hoping that the three ghost wouldn't be there, but luck was again not on his side and he sighed, when he saw the three standing behind each other.

" _We're sorry_ ," Haru sang and jumped from behind Sokka, to the left side. 

" _So sorry_ ," Suki jumped to the right side, while Sokka stayed in the middle.

" _We're super-duper, crazy stupid_ ," Sokka sang and then kneeled on the floor, opening his arms, just like the two other ghosts.

" _Sorry_ ," they all three sang together.

"In case you missed it, we're really sorry," Haru panted breathless, with a grin, but Zuko could just blink at them.

"Yeah. I ... I got that part," Zuko frowned.

"We've been here for, like, three hours," Suki smiled and Haru grinned, giving her a high-five.

"We almost sang to your little sister," Sokka said breathless and stood up.

"She comes in here a lot. Mainly to look for ghosts," Haru nodded.

"Yeah. It's not our favorite part of the day," Suki grimaced.

"But, Zuko, it wasn't ok that we flaked on the dance last night," Sokka started with an apologetically expression. "We know we let you down."

"Yeah, and none of us wanted to disappoint you," Suki agreed, but Zuko just crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "You're the best thing that's happened to us since we became ghosts."

"So, in hopes that you'll rejoin the band," Sokka started with a small hopeful smile and stepped in front of Zuko, pulling the flyer for the gig tonight out, and giving it to Zuko. "We booked a new gig."

"A mega important, life-changing gig," Haru added smirking.

Zuko looked over the flyer, his frown only deepened and Sokka swallowed the lump that was building in his throat, when he realized that Zuko still didn't said anything.

"Oh, ok Check it out. Tons of managers go here to listen to new bands. All we gotta do is blow them all away, and we're living the dream."

Zuko finally looked up at him, but Sokka winced at the look on Zukos face. He looked pissed, to say the least.

"So this means a lot to you, huh?" he scoffed and Sokka didn't know what to say anymore. "Kind of how playing in front of my whole entire school meant a lot to me."

"Sounds like sarcasm," Haru laughed, but then gasped. "I'm starting to think our plan isn't working."

Suki rolled her eyes at Haru, but then looked at Zuko. "Look, we know we messed up."

"But we need you in the band," Sokka looked at Zuko with a peading look on his face.

"Of course you do," Zuko scoffed. "Because without me, no one can see you guys playing."

Zuko was so done with them, this apologie was nothing, this did nothing to change his mind, actually it showed him, that they were selfish. They needed Zuko, to be seen, not because of his voice or because of his songwriting skills or even his piano playing. Zuko felt so stupid.

"You know, I thought that the music that we were writing was special, but you're too obsessed with your past to even care," Zuko said his voice harsh and shock his head at Sokka.

Sokka felt like he was just slapped. "I do care. Our band has a real chance at greatness. I'm not gonna let that get away from us again."

"Uh-huh. Right. So then why did you bail on me to get back at Toph?" Zuko asked with narrowed eyes and his voice was cold. "I'll tell you why. 'Cause there's one thing you care about, and that's yourself."

Sokka gasped. He was speechless and he felt like throwing up, he looked shocked towards Zuko, not believing what he just said. He couldn't mean that, right?  
  
Sokka felt sick. 

Zuko turned around and walked away, and for a moment Sokka played with the thought, to walk after him, but he was to hurt.

 _That hurt more, than the weird shots of pain, that they got after yesterday_ , Sokka thought.

"Dude, he didn't mean it," Suki tried, but Sokka shook his head and beamed himself away.

Haru frowned. "Where is he going?"

"Where do you think?" Suki sighed sadly. "Remember what today is?"

***

Zuko was doing his homework, when Suki and Haru beamed themselves to him, but he ignored them. 

"Hey, you, uh ... you got a second?" Suki asked with a small voice, but Zuko only sighed and turned away from them.

"Oh my god. He can't see us anymore!" Haru gasped, and Suki looked at him in disbelief shaking her head.

"Oh. Right," he realized and Suki nodded, sitting next to Zuko. 

"Zuko, please," she pleaded and she sounded tired, Zuko finally looked up. 

"I already told you that I'm done with the band."

"Yeah, we know, all right? But before you decide that forever, we just ...," she trailed off, and took a deep breath. "We wanted you to know that Sokka isn't as selfish as you think."

"Yeah, you've got him all wrong," Haru agreed, but Zuko just scoffed.

Suki and Haru looked at each other, both not knowing what to do, but then Suki just gave in, her shoulders slumping. "You remember that song 'Katara'? Can we at least show you who that's actually about?"

Zuko looked confused between Suki and Haru, who both looked tired and sad. He sighed and nodded.

***

They hide behind trees and looked inside of a small house. It was a cute little home. 

Zuko looked into the window and tried not to feel to bad about the inversion of privacy. 

His heart broke at the sight of Sokka on the kitchen counter. His hair was down and falling into his face Zuko nearly didn’t saw the red rimmed eyes and acutally tears, streaming down his face. And the worst part was that Zuko saw his body shaking with sobs. Every sob, made Zukos heart clench tighter and tighter. He watched the two people, that were in their thirties or maybe even fourties, walking around the kitchen. It was a woman with brown long hair and blue eyes. Zuko immediately saw a resemblance between her and Sokka. There was also a man with her, he was tall and bald. He had some tattoos on his arms and even on his head. Suki told him, that she was Katara and the man with her was her husband, Aang.

They both looked tired and somewhat sad. But Zuko was confused when she put a cake on the table. 

"So Katara is what? ... His sister?" Zuko asked.

"Yeah," Haru mumbled and Suki only nodded.

"Yeah, Sokka comes here a lot."

"He thinks we don't know but ...," Haru trailed off, a flash of guilt sparkled in his eyes. "We've been following him."

Zuko shook his head lightly, this was painful to watch Sokka, seeing the boy that was always laughing, joking and talking loudly, so quiet, small and sad.

"All he does is just hang out like this and watch them," Suki mumbled and Zuko could hear the pain in her voice.

"They never really do anything though," Haru whispered sadly.

"They're having cake," Zuko said confused and frowned. "That's something."

Haru swallowed, with tears in his eyes. "It's a ... It's a birthday cake. For Sokka."

Zuko closed his eyes and took a shaky breath, trying hard not to cry. This was too hard to watch, but he couldn't look away, he was too afraid to let Sokka out of his sight, when he looked so fragile and broken. He felt the need to protect him.

He regretted his words, Zuko felt so stupid. Why, just why did he yell at him today? It was already bad enough saying those things to him, but knowing that Zuko said those words to Sokka on his birthday, made him feel horrible. Zuko thought, that he himself, was a horrible person.

"I never knew Sokka was hurting this much," Zuko whispered.

"Yeah," Suki breathed out. "It's even worse because when he died, he ... left on bad terms. You know, his family didn't want their 17-year-old in a rock band, so ... he just left."

Two other people, two men in their fifties or sixties walked into the room. One of them looked just like Sokka and Katara, his name was Hakodate, Haru explained. And the other one had long black hair, that was visibly turning gray. His name was Bato. Hakoda kissed the top of Kataras head and all four sat down.

Aang took Kataras left hand in his own holding it up and placing a gentle kiss on her knuckles while the other hand rubbed circled onto her back. She was crying silently.

Sokka stood up and walked to the empty chair in the middle, and sat himself down.

"He never got the chance to make up with them," Suki muttered sadly.

Haloda was lighting the candle on the cake and Sokka leaned forward and blew the candle out. All four looked confused around the room, their was no open window.

"That's why Sokka was so angry. If Toph had given Sokka credit for writing all the songs, then ...," Haru sighed with a sad smile. "His family would've known his dream was worth chasing."

Zuko shook his head lightly, a few tears escaping his eyes. His heart shattered into a thousand pieces. He finally understood Sokka, and Zuko would have done the same. He would have wanted his revenge too.

"They would have been so proud," Zuko whispered.

Bato grabbed the hand of Sokkas father, after he lit the candle again, interwining their hands. He gave him a small smile and kissed Sokkas father on his temple. Katara grabbed the other hand of her father and gave him a sad smile. Katara took a deep breath, a sob escaping her lips and then they all blew on the candle, even Sokka.

Zuko bit his lip to stop himself from sobbing, but it didn't work. He swallowed hard and rubbed the tears away, with the sleeves of his sweater.

He couldn't be mad at Sokka not anymore, not seeing him like this. Not when Zuko saw how hurt he really was. He deserved to be happy, he desvered to show his family, that he actually did make it, even though that Toph did steal all his songs, they were at the end of the day Sokkas songs. 

_This was just so fucked up_ , Zuko thought and he wanted to help him so badly, show his family that he could have made it. That he would have made it.

He also wanted to wrap his arms around Sokka, rubbing his back, telling him how proud he was of him. Letting him cry in his arms, until he fell asleep, cuddling him, while he slept.

But he couldn't.

"We know how bad it hurts whenever someone that should've had you back ... completely lets you down," Suki looked at Zuko, with sad eyes. "We never meant to make you feel that way."

"Zuko, we love our band," Haru said. "And Sokka does too. Please give us another chance." he begged and he looked so hurt and small in that moment.

And how could Zuko say no to them? 

He looked at Sokka, but something else caught his eyes, there on the kitchen counter, behind Sokka, was a vase with dahlias in it.

_His mothers favorite flowers._

***

They were back at the studio, they immediately started to practice on some songs.

" _Marching on proud, Turn it up loud, 'Cause now we know what we're worth_ ," Zuko began to sing, but they stopped when Sokka beamed himself into the room, landing on a chair.

"Whoa, Zuko," he looked with wide, confused eyes at Zuko.

Sokka felt a little hope raising inside of him, when he caught the sight of Zuko.

Zuko gave him a small but genuine smile. "Grab your guitar. We got work to do."

His mouth opened slightly in confusion and he looked at his bandmates, who just shrugged with knowing smiles. And then Sokka chuckled and he smiled softly, while he grabbed his guitar. The smile warmed Zukos heart and he let out a breath of relieve, seeing Sokka smile again, was everything he needed right now.

He walked up to Zuko, who stood up. "What made you come back?" he asked quietly. 

"I realized how important music is to all of us. And we've lost so much already. We can't lose this too."

Sokka nodded understandingly. "Thanks."

They starred into each others eyes in silence.

_Gold meeting blue, the sun looking at the ocean._

The left corner of Sokkas lip turn up and a small chuckle escaped his lips. "All right, boss. Where we at?"

Zuko laughed and sat back down. "Oh, and by the way, happy birthday."

He looked taken aback and his eyes wandered to his friends and then back too Zuko, still surprised and confused, but he smiled. His smile lit his whole face up, his eyes sparkling and his teeth showing.

Zukos heart was pounding fast in his chest and this time, he knew, it was because of the ghost in front of him.

"Let's go for the pre-chorus."

***

Zuko walked into the kitchen mumbeling the song that they would play tonight, but stopped at the sight of his sister talking pictures on her phone, of the empty room.

"Oh ...," Zuko looked confused towards his sister. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for those orb things," she muttered not bothering to look at him. "I'm telling you this place is hunted."

Zuko raised one eyebrow and crossed his arms in front of him. "Every time I open my laptop it's on some ... rock music site," she explained looking disgusted. "That ain't me. You know I'm all about the rap."

"Haru," Zuko chuckled under is breath and rolled his eyes, but Azula ignored him.

"I'm just trying to protect you."

Zuko shook his head in disbelief and wanted to walk past his sister into the living room, but Azula stopped him. "Oh, I would be careful in there. Uncle has that look on his face, like when Google Maps tells him to turn on the wrong street."

Zukos eyes widened, but he still walked past her, but was stopped by an upset looking Iroh. He crossed his arms in front of him and looked sternly at Zuko.

"Nephew, care to tell me why you missed the first three classes today?" 

Zukos face fell and he took a deep breath. "I overslept at Mai's house after the dance. There was nothing going on in those classes anyways."

That was a lie and Zuko knew that, but he didn't want to disappoint his uncle any more, than he already did.

"It won't happen again," Zuko promised. "I promise."

He walked past his uncle and sat on the couch. 

"Ok," Uncle Iroh sighed. "But if I know you missed class, it's only a matter of time before ...," in that moment the front door opened and Piandao walked into the house, sighing deeply.

"I came as fast as I could," Zuko tried not to groan in frustation and looked away with a frown.

"Exactly," Uncle Iroh muttered.

"Zuko, I will not let you fall into the gutter of life," Piandao said, looking concerend at Zuko. 

"Uncle, I'm fine. I just overslept. And me and Uncle Iroh already talked about it."

Piandao just scoffed. "You are far from fine, Zuko. I called your teacher. She said you missed a calculus test," he said angry.

 _Oh no,_ Zuko thought and this time he did groan loudly.

"Nothing going on, huh?" Uncle Iroh said with furrowed eyebrows. 

"Uncle, I'm so sorry," Zuko mumbled but his Uncle only sighed.

"This is where you punish him," Piandao said matter of factly.

Uncle Iroh looked taken aback, but then nodded slowly. "I know."

He still starred at Zuko, but it was hard for him to punish his nephew, he already felt bad, for even considering a punishment, but Piandao wouldn't leave them alone until Zuko got a punishment. 

"Zuko," Uncle Iroh started, his eyes never leaving his nephew. "No more going out on school nights."

"But, Uncle, tonight ...," Zuko started with pleading eyes, but Piandao cleared his throat and Zuko looked up at him with a glare. 

"And go to your room," Iroh added, but Piandao cleared his throat again with wide eyes and a raised eyebrow.

"What else?" Uncle Iroh asked confused and looked at Piandao who gestured with his hand some things. "What? And ... And read?"

Piandao shook his head and gestured again.

"Study. Calculus," Piandao nodded with a satisfied grin.

Zuko could just stare at his Uncle in disbelief, mouth open.

"Go! Now!" Iroh said and Zuko scoffed and stood up, to walk into his room.

This was bad. They had a gig tonight, after all. He couldn’t let them down after everything that happened in the last 24 hours. He felt his stomach drop.

Iroh sighed and sat down. 

"You know I'm only here to help, right?"

He looked at Piandao and nodded slightly. "I know. And sometimes I look a little annoyed ...but I do appreciate you."

Piandao raised an eyebrow. "You need me to look after Azula, don't you?"

"Just a couple of hours," he mumbled with a small pleading smile and Piandao patted his shoulder.

"Azula," he called and walked into the kitchen.

***

Zuko, in fact, didn't study. He doodled on a white microphone, but stopped when he got a message from Jet.

It was a picture of a disco dancer in too bright neon clothes and he fotoshopped his face on the persons head. He wrote _I'll be wearing this to our dance._

Zuko laughed and wrote him back, a knock on his door ripped him out of his thoughts.

Zuko looked to the door, but rolled his eyes, when he saw a hand coming through the door.

"What are you guys doing?"

Haru pushed his torso through the door with a smirk. "We're being classy."

Someone pulled him back and Zuko heard him huff and then Sokka walked through the door with a smile on his face.

"Why are you still here? We're going in, in like, 20 minutes?" he asked and the other two followed him into the room.

Zuko looked away from them sighing. "I lied to my uncle, so ... now I'm stuck in my room all night."

Suki frowned. "Yeah, but we were just at the venue. I mean, it's packed. Like, VIP's, managers. It's kind of crazy."

They looked excited and Zuko was too, but he couldn't go with them, even though he wanted too.

"What are we gonna do about my other uncle? He's right downstairs."

Sokka smirked and walked to the window. "Your uncle." he laughed mockingly under his breath, shaking his head.

He opened the window. "You're not taking the stairs."

Zuko looked between the ghosts, his mouth opening and closing. 

He shouldn't do this, he knew that, but he wanted too.

Zuko started to grin. "Ok. Let me get dressed. I'll meet you guys there."

***

Zuko saw Mai already waiting for him inside the venue. He rushed towards her.

"Am I too late?"

"Too early," Mai muttered and looked in annoyance to the stage.

Zuko followed her eyes, only to see Ty Lee on the stage.

"Dirty Candy? How'd she get on the list?" Zuko asked confused.

Mai scoffed. "Her mommy probably made a call."

Zuko sighed and Mai pointed to the dahlia pin on Zukos leather jacket. "I like this. Pretty flower."

"Thanks. It's a dahlia. My moms favorite." 

She gave him a sad smile and rubbed his arm, he returned the smile and looked towards the stage, where Ty Lee and her friends, Jin and Meng. started their performance.

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnGinyIMAUc> _

The ghosts joined them in the first few seconds of the performance. Zuko grinned at them, his eyes lingering a little longer on Sokka and then on his arms. He wore a black tank top and it showed his perfectly muscular arms. He shook his head and looked towards the stage again, trying to focus on Ty Lee.

Suki beamed herself on the stage, in the middle of the song and started dancing. Zuko looked confused to Sokka and Haru, who just shrugged and were as confused as Zuko.

But it looked like Suki was enjoying herself and Zuko caught himself smiling at the girl. It was funny and kind of sad, considering, that no one else could see her, but she had the time of her life, that's the only thing that mattered. 

She beamed herself back and Zuko grinned up at Suki. "You having fun out there?"

She cleared her throat and Zuko could see a faint blush on her cheeks. "It's not my fault. It's my, uhm ... It's my feet."

"Yeah," Zuko laughed. 

She looked with a big grin towards the stage. "Put me back in, Coach."

She was again on the stage, dancing next to Ty Lee, who didn't know that a ghost was next to her. Actually stealing the show.

Sokka laughed and shook his head, he was happy, that Suki was enjoying this so much, after everything that happened yesterday.

When the performance ended, Suki beamed herself back to the group and smiled at them, panting out of breath. „I-I ... uhm I was just ...," she cleared her throat, laughing slightly. „I was just doing that for you guys."

Haru nodded with a knowing smirk and raised eyebrow. "Mhm, yeah. You can stop smiling now."

"I'm not gonna lie," Zuko grimaced. "That was ... kinda good."

Mai scrunched up her nose, disgusted but nodded. "Yeah. I forgot why I hate her so much."

Ty Lee walked up to them with a smirk. "Hi, guys. Uhm, isn't it past your bedtime?"

"Now I remember," Mai scoffed under her breath.

Ty Lee glared at Zuko. "If you're looking for Jet, he didn't come."

Zuko scoffed, shaking his head. "That's not why I'm here."

He narrowed his eyes at her, but looked to the stage, when the guy announced the last new comer act of the night.

"Zuko and The Fat Ones," he said into the microphone with a grimace, but shrugged and walked off the stage, while Ty Lee and her friends snickered.

They all looked at Sokka, shaking their heads. Sokka bit his lip and closed his eyes.

"Really?" Suki muttered under her breath.

"Yeah, man. My handwriting sucks."

Zuko walked past Ty Lee and he heard her huff in annoyance, and he smirked at that.

Zuko sat in front of the keyboard and put the microphone, that he doodled on earlier, in the microphone stand. 

"Hi, it's acutally Zuko and the Phantoms," he said, and there was a few seconds of silence. „Ok."

Mai turned the projector on and he started to play on the keyboard.

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJIWta_o1NM> _

When the ghosts joined, the crowd was cheering and dancing to the song and Zuko felt proud. He stood up with the microphone in his and walked to the middle of the stage. He walked to Haru, while he still sang and then to Suki and her drums.

It felt right to sing like that on the stage and the crowd cheering for them. He felt alive.

He felt free.

He looked to his left side, at Sokka and their eyes met, while they sang. When Sukis and Harus instruments went a little quiet and only Sokkas guitar was playing loudly, Zuko walked up to Sokka. 

Sokka turned to Zuko and met him in the middle of the stage. Zuko put the microphone in between them and they looked into each others eyes, singing the next part together. 

The moment felt eletrical for Zuko and his grin was just as wide as Sokkas.

Haru grinned at them with wide eyes and look at Suki, who nodded knowingly and smiled wildly at Zuko and Sokka. There was so much tension between those two and literally everyone could feel it _and see it._

They ended the song and the three ghosts disappeared again. The crowd was confused for a moment, but then cheered again and Zuko just laughed.

"We're Zuko and the Phantoms. Tell your friends."

He walked off the stage and ran into Mais arms, who grinned at him with big eyes.

"You were incredible," she shrieked in excitement.

"Yeah, we were," Haru laughed nodding proudly.

"Hey. Hey! Whoever Ty Lee was trying to impress is coming this way," Sokka said with wide eyes.

Zuko turned around and swallowed hard.

"She looks all business," Suki muttered with wide eyes.

"Wait. Who should do the talking?" Haru asked nervously, but then looked to Zuko who scoffed at him. "Right. Zuko. Zuko."

"Yeah," he breathed out.

Sokka nodded at him. "You got this."

The woman held her hand out, when she reached Zuko and he took it, while she smiled at him. "Hi, I'm Andi Parker, and I would-"

"Zuko," someone said sternly behind the woman and Zukos eyes ripped open. 

"Uncle," he breathed out and his stomach dropped, when his saw his uncles expression.

"It's time to go," he said with disappointment in his eyes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't roast Uncle Iroh just yet. :)  
> So I cried while writing this, but you know what, it will get worse.


	8. Edge of Great

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is my favorite episode, so I hope you all enjoy it :)

Azula was walking through the living room. It was dark now and she was looking on her iPad, which had a ghost hunting app on it. She was looking at the green display, narrowing her eyes. She new something was up, she just had a feeling for it.

"You can't hide forever, stupid ghosts," she muttered to herself. 

She turned slowly to the left side and smirked when the iPad showed a figure standing in the door. The display read _Ghost Acquired._

"Gotcha!" she exclaimed, but rolled her eyes, when the figure turned the lights on.

"For the last time, Azula," Piandao sighed and walked towards her. "Ghosts aren't real."

Haru shook his head. He was sitting on the coach with Sokka and Suki beside him. "Typical adult."

"Do you remember when we were kids, and they never believed what we said?" Haru asked and turned his gaze to his friends.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's just a 'you' thing," Suki scoffed, but then grinned. "I was always pretty trustworthy."

"Shouldn't we be more worried about Zuko?" Sokka asked concerned. "His uncle just busted him, ok? He's probably making him quit the band."

Haro frowned. "Well, there's not much we can do about that now, but ...," he trailed off and looked back at Azula, who showed Piandao something on the iPad cleary annoyed. "We can still help Azula. Adults not believing children end tonight." He grinned and looked at the lamp behind him, putting his hand on the switch. "Showtime."

"I haven't seen them I-," Azula started, but when the lights turned off, she heard Piandao gasped beside her and a small smile creeped on her face, looking at the lamp. "Ghosts aren't real, huh? How do you explain that?" she smirked, while her uncle looked dumbfounded, at the lamp.

"Light bulbs burn out all the time, Azula," he said after a while, shrugging and laughing a little, but it sounded forced.

"Wrong answer, Piandao," Haru smirked and stood up, walking to the blinds. "Explain this," he opened and closed the blinds.

Sokka groaned and crossed his arms, falling back on the coach. Suki looked in disbelief at her friend. She couldn’t believe how stupid he was. 

Piandaos eyes widened and he grabbed Azulas shoulders, mouth agape.

"Maybe it's my mom," Azula said with a smile, but then her face paled. "She knows I haven't been the nicest person!"

"Your mother would never scare us. This is the work of a demon!"

Haru gasped and his hands stilled on the blinds, he looked shocked at the man in front of him. "Hey, words hurt," he mumbled with a pout.

"Wait! I got to get it on video," Azula said and Haru nodded.

"Yeah, you do," Haru walked towards the laundry basket and pulled out a bedsheet. "Time for an old classic."

He threw the bedsheet over his head. He put his hands up laughing and making ghosts sounds, while he shook his whole body. He heard Piandao scream and Azula gasped in excitment.

"Shit, it was in selfie mode," she frowned at the display, but before she could take another picture, her uncle grabbed her arm and pulled her outside.

Haru laughed and took the bedsheet of, grinning at his friends, who looked at him, clearly not happy. He sat down and sighed happily.

Both Suki and Sokka had crossed their arms in front of them looking angrily at their friend. 

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Suki asked with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, I do. I've defended every kid who's never been believed," he said and smiled proudly. "Some might say I'm a superhero." 

His eyes widened in realization and he starred at his friends. "We should probably hide before Zuko finds out, huh?"

He stood up and ran away. Suki and Sokka looked at each other frustrated and they both stood up groaning and muttering under their breaths, running after Haru.

***

Zuko walked in front of his uncle, not daring to look at him. He was sad and angry at his uncle, but also at himself.

"Zuko, we need to talk," Zuko rolled his eyes, but stopped walking and turned to his uncle with a sigh.

"So, after skipping school, missing a test, you decided to sneak out, even though I told you to go to your room and study?" he asked clearly disappointed and Zuko flinched.

"I know," Zuko mumbled guiltily. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, you keep saying that," Iroh said and shook his head. "If you'd just ... let me in, I could've been excited about tonight, nephew. Instead of having this conversation we both hate," he sounded frustrated and Zuko could understand why, he was right. 

He looked at his uncle apologetic, but not responding, while fiddling with the straps of his bag nervously.

"Why didn't you tell me you were in a band?"

"It all just happened so fast," Zuko defended himself, shaking his head. "These last couple of weeks have changed my life. When I play music, I feel so much closer to my mother."

Iroh closed his eyes, sighing, his expression softening.

"And I love that. You know I do," he started and looked into Zukos eyes. "But your uncle Piandao is right. School needs to come first."

Zuko rolled his eyes, but nodded slightly. "I know, but without the band, I would've never made it back into the music program."

Irohs eyes widened at that, but he didn't interrupt Zuko. 

"They played with me when I was trying to earn back my spot,“ Zuko looked at the ground remembering how they helped him and he had to suppress a smile.

Iroh looked taken back. "They did?"

Zuko nodded sadly and looked at his uncle pleadingly. "I think this is my thing, uncle."

"Well," he mumbled, but a small smile formed on his lips. "I'd be a terrible uncle if I took that away from you. Look, If you gonna stay in this band, you need to keep up with school, and you need to keep me in the loop."

"Really?" Zuko asked hopefully, eyes sparkling.

"Yes," Iroh breathed out and a huge smile spread on Zukos face and he pulled his uncle in a tight hug.

"Thanks, uncle," he mumbled into his uncles shoulder, who wrapped his arms around Zuko, squeezing him tightly.

"So, that lady at your show, she was, like, some sort of manager, right?" Iroh asked and pulled away from Zuko, slightly frowning. "Could've been a big deal."

"Who knows?" Zuko shook his head and shrugged. "Hopefully, she'll get to see us play again. Which I will tell you about."

Iroh laughed lightly. "Oh yeah, you will, 'cause if I ever catch you trying to sneak out again, or if your grade slip, I'm gonna pull the plug. Or whatever it is that makes those holograms work."

Zuko nodded and chuckled awkwardly and his uncle smiled at him. "Do I ever get to meet them?"

Zuko swallowed and shook his head. "Probably not. They don't even live here. It's ... kind of confusing. But being seen really isn't their thing," Zuko lied with a smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

He was a bad liar, but his uncle seemed like he didn’t noticed, the lies Zuko told.

"You kids and technology. It's ... definitely beyond me."

"Definitely beyond something," Zuko muttered.

"Well, whoever and, uh, wherever they are," he started and smiled warmly at Zuko. "They brought my nephew back, as far as I'm concerned, they're like angles to me."

Before Zuko could say anything, he saw is uncle Piandao running out of the house, gasping and his expression was full of fear. Uncle Iroh frowned at the man and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Woah, what happened?" Iroh asked concerned.

He ran towards Zuko and Iroh and stopped when he stood in front of them, trying to catch his breath. "This house is haunted! We have got to go. Now!"

"What happened?" Zuko asked worried and confused, he knew it had probably something to do we the three ghosts, living in his garage.

"Piandao, I know you want us to move, but this is a little extreme. I told you, we're ok," Iroh laughed and patted Piandaos shoulder, who just frowned.

"I'll let Azula explain what happened. She refuses to leave, but if movies have taught me anything, when a house is haunted, you fucking run," Paindao shook his head not quite believing what just happened, he muttered something under his breath, it sounded like praying and walked away, well more like ran.

Zuko clenched his jaw, trying to stay calm. _Stupid ghosts,_ he thought. 

***

Zuko walked downstairs, ready for school, well as ready as he could be for school. He slowed down, when he heard someone singing _Finally Free_. _This couldn't be_ ... he frowned, when a second voice joined. He walked into the kitchen, seeing his Uncle singing. He was making breakfast, looking really happy. Next to him stood Haru grinning and singing along with him. Zuko couldn't help but laugh.

"This is new," he smiled at Haru and his uncle.

"Yes. I was in the mood for cooking some breakfast," he said with a smile, looking up at Zuko.

Haru giggled. "He thought you were talking to him," he said and Zuko tried really hard not to laugh at him. "Me and your uncle are pals now. "

Haru sighed and looked towards his Uncle, but still grinned. "It's a little one-sided, but it works."

"Look, after the talk we had the other night, I was thinking that I may have cost you an opportunity with the manager. So, I was thinking-"

Uncle Iroh looked gulity, which broke Zukos heart and he shook his head, interrupting him. "Uncle, no. I should've never snuck out."

"Let the man speak. He's been stress eating all week. I don't know where he puts it though. It's like ... firm," Haru said confused and made a hand gesture towards Irohs stomach.

Zuko bit his lip, trying really hard not to smile and focused on his uncle again. 

"I know, but I really want to support your band, so I called in some favors, and I booked you a local gig," he said grinning at Zuko. 

Haru gasped, looking excited. "Best uncle ever!"

"Oh my god. Where? Did you call your buddy from, Drakes?" Zuko asked excited, his eyes were big and he had a huge smile on his face.

Uncle Iroh smiled awkwardly and scrunched his nose slightly. "Not quite. I called Mai, and she's gonna help us throw a party. Here. Tonight."

"Oh," Zuko said, his smile disappearing, this couldn't be good. "So you booked us a gig at our house?"

"Maybe I was early with the 'Best Uncle Ever' award," Haru said, looking disappointed.

"All right. Hear me out," his uncle started, with a reassuring smile. "You invite some of your friends over, you play with your band, and I'll get some colleagues to put you on film. That way, you have something professional for you YouTube or whatever it’s called."

Zuko chuckled slightly. His uncle, was indeed the best uncle ever. His was glade, that he had him. He would literally do anything for him. Iroh was always there for Zuko, no matter what. He was there in Zukos worst moments, like when his father was abusing him and then when is mother died and now he did this for him and Zuko didn't know what to do or say. He didn't know how to show him, how thankful he was, for everything. He was more like a father to him, than an uncle.

"You'd do that for me?" Zuko asked smiling softly at his uncle.

"Yes, of course, nephew," he grinned and walked towards the sink.

Haru smiled at Zuko, eyes sparkling. "Back to 'Best Uncle Ever'. I'll tell the others."

He walked backwards, looking at Iroh. "Have a good day at work, Iroh," he called, but didn't get an answer. "It's cool. You don't have to answer. Just ..."

Zuko raised an eyebrow at him and smirked. Haru looked embarrassed and beamed himself out.

***

Zuko walked to his locker. He just wrote an exam, and he was tired. He wanted to go home and play some music. He wanted to practice for their gig. He was excited, but nervous. This was a good opportunity and he was really thankful for his uncle (and Mai), organizing this gig for him, even though he wasn't the best nephew lately. 

He thought about which song to play at the gig and closed his locker, but jumped and gasped looking scared, when he saw Sokka standing behind it.

He grinning at Zuko, ignoring the fact that he just scared the poor guy. "Hey."

Zuko tried to catch his breath and then froced a smile, looking at Sokka, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms in front of him. "Normal people don't do that. And ghosts definitely shouldn't. What are you doing here?"

"We need to talk about what song we're gonna play tonight. I was thinking ... _'_ _Great',_ " Sokka said, but Zuko didn't look at him, which made Sokka frown. 

Zuko looked towards a group of people who greeted him and he smiled awkwardly at them. He cleared his throat and pulled his phone out. "Hold up."

Sokkas furrowed his eyebrows, confused, when Zuko put the phone to his ear. "You're gonna take a call while we're talking? You know how rude that is?"

"Hey, thanks for calling," Zuko grinned and looked into Sokkas eyes. "Otherwise, people might think I'm talking to myself."

Sokkas widened and he started laughing and nodded at Zuko. "Right. Nice."

"No. But, yeah. I think ' _Great'_ is a ...," Zuko trailed off and then cringed. " _Great_ choice."

"Sweet. Well ...," Sokka mumbled and played with his fingers awkwardly. "I mean, that's pretty much what I wanted to talk to you about. So ..."

"Oh," Zuko breathed out, a little disappointed. "Ok."

Sokka bit his lip, looking at everything, but not at Zuko, which confused the latter. Sokka took a deep breath, trying to meet Zukos eyes, and Zukos heart fluttered in his chest, when he looked into Sokkas blue eyes.

"Uh, actually, no there is one more thing I wanted to talk to you about. It's," Sokka started, laughing a little bit, but it didn't sound right. "Look, I know I'm not the easiest person to work with, but I ... I wanted to tell you that I think you make me a better writer."

Zuko felt himself blush and a huge smile formed on his lips. His heart was beating even faster in his chest.

 _Pull yourself together_ , Zuko thought and shook his head. Sokka was a ghost. _A fucking ghosts._

He knew it was wrong and stupid and kind of weird, that he felt that way, when he talked to Sokka, but he couldn't help himself. _The boy was just so cute, endearing and hot and smart and_ ... ok. This wasn't good. Zuko felt like he had to do something about this crush.

"I think we make each other better."

Sokka smiled softly. "You know what? Why don't you just ditch school today? Let's go rehearse."

"What? No. No. I promised uncle, school first," Zuko said, but deep down, he wanted to go with Sokka. 

"Right. You were at school first and now you're leaving to go rehearse," he smiled and then started pouting, with hopeful eyes and Zuko rolled his eyes, but there was a small smile on his lips.

"Come on. I can't do this without you," Sokka pleaded and Zuko melted and he nearly said yes, but he shook his head.

"I can't I ...," Zuko sighed. "I told Jet I'd be his dance partner," Zuko said and then, out of nowhere, he heard the guys voice. 

"Hey, Zuko," Jet called ginning at Zuko, walking towards him.

"And he's heading this way. Gotta go. Bye," Zuko said and put the phone away, looking at Jet with a forced smile.

"Hey," Jet breathed out with a grin, stopping in front of Zuko.

"Well, don't you look sharp?" Sokka grinned and looked at Jet, eyeing the clothes that Jet wore. 

He wore black dress pants and a black dress shirt, ready for the dance practices. Zuko thought that he looked good, well not as good as Sokka though and he hated those thoughts.

"You ready for our big performance?" Jet asked excited.

"Oh yeah. Yeah. We're gonna do great," Zuko chuckled awkwardly.

"I'm glade you're confident. Even after three classes I still think I got worse. It's a good thing I got my secret weapon," Jet said and grinned at Zuko.

Sokka gasped dramatically. "Uh-oh! I think somebody has a crush on Zuko."

Zuko grinned sharply at Sokka, clenching his jaw. "Shut up."

Jet looked confused at Zuko, while Sokka just grinned. Zukos eyes widened, when he realized, that he couldn't see Sokka and he cleared his throat.

"Uh ... Shut up," Zuko trailed off, more jokingly, looking at Jet, with a forced smile. "No, seriously, Zuko. I ... I ... I'm nothing without you," he smiled earnestly.

Zuko waved him off, blushing a little bit and looking away. "Shh. No. No, you're ...," he said and punched Jets shoulder. "You're gonna do fine. See you in there?"

"Yeah. I'll be the guy trying not to make us look stupid," Jet smirked and walked away laughing, while Sokka mocked his laugh overly dramatic and walked behind him, even mocking his walk.

Sokka took a deep breath, shaking his head, walking back to Zuko, while he pointed to Jet. "Well, he's just too cute!"

"Boundaries," Zuko said, rolling his eyes. "I'll see you after school." Zuko turned around and started to walk away.

"Guess we'll just have to carry you tonight, just like we always do!" Sokka called behind him and Zuko just rolled his eyes and sighed, but he couldn't help but smile.

"I know you're smiling," Sokka yelled and Zuko shook his head. "Kill it on the dance floor."

***

Zuko had changed into his own black dress pants and Black dress shirt. He was standing in front of his dance teacher and the coach, while Jet was standing behind him. He was ready to dance and hoped that this was the last time dancing with Jet, because he couldn't dance to safe his life.

"Boys! I want you to focus and leave it all out on the field," the coach yelled and everyone looked confused at the coach.

"You're losing them, Frank," Zukos dance teacher said.

"No. I got'em," he muttered, but his dance teacher interrupted him. "Breath in ... shake out you nerves. Surrender to the music and to your partner. Here we go."

With that she walked to the CD play.

"I ... I don't remember anything about surrendering," Jet said confused.

"You'll be fine, Sokka," Zuko said with a reassuring smile.

"It's ... it's Jet, actually," Jet frowned.

"Right," Zuko gasped with big eyes. "Jet. Sorry. My brain was wandering. But it wandered back ... and now I'm ready to kill it."

The music started playing and Jet just walked to his spot. Zuko frowned and rolled his shoulders back, trying to focus, but it was hard. His thoughts were already again, by the boy with the blue eyes.

"Five, six, seven, eight," his teacher called and they started dancing and Zuko tried to focus on Jet.

Zuko even smiled, enjoying the dance. He turned around and when Jet tapped his shoulder, he turned back to the boy. He was grinning at Zuko and Zuko smiled back at him, but when he looked for a moment away, towards the mirror, his smile slipped away.

When he looked into the mirror, his heart started racing. There, in the mirror, was Sokka. His hair was down and he was wearing a white dress shirt and black dress pants. Besides Sokka and Zuko, nobody else was there. 

Sokka smiled softly at Zuko and walked slowly towards him, walking through the mirror. " _Step into my world._ "

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YduFDvZqIhQ> _

Sokka sang softly, still walking towards Zuko and the only thing Zuko could do was stare at him in awe, mouth slightly open, not quite believing his eyes.

 _He looked perfect_ , Zuko thought.

Zuko could only focus on Sokka, he forgot everything around them. Everything around Zuko faded out and he could only watch Sokka, singing to _him,_ smiling at _him_.

" _Bittersweet love story 'bout a boy, Shook me to the core,"_ Sokka sang and held his hands out for Zuko to take them.

Zuko hesitated, because he knew his hands would go through his, but he still held them up, slowly laying them down on Sokkas, but they went through his.

Sokka just smiled and now he was the one, slowly laying them on Zukos, but they went through them again and Zukos heart broke a little. He wanted to hold him, to touch him.

" _Voice like an angle, I've never heard before,_ " Sokka sang and Zuko looked for the first time into Sokkas eyes, trying to lay his hands again, on Sokkas and this time it worked and he felt like the air around them was filled with electricity. Zukos heart skipped a beat and he closed his eyes with a warm smile. His hands were warm and a little rough.

" _Here in front of me,_ " Zuko sang and they started dancing and Zuko felt whole again. 

It felt like finding a missing puzzle piece. He was one with Sokka and he didn't want to lose that feeling. He didn't want to lose _him._ He needed Sokka and deep down he knew, Sokka had to feel the same way, right?

" _The truth is finally breaking through,_ " they both sang smiling at each other with so much love in their expressions. Sokka was dancing his way towards him, kneeling in front of Zuko, holding his hands out for him and Zuko didn't hesitate and grabbed his hands. " _Two worlds collide when I'm with you."_

Sokka picked him up, twirling around with him in his arms and Zuko put his hands on Sokkas shoulders, slowly inching up, to grab his neck. They looked into each others eyes.

Gold meeting blue and the world stopped for a moment for Zuko and his breath hitched.

" _We come to life, When we're in perfect harmony._ "

Sokka let Zuko down, both smiling and laughing at each other, neither stopped singing. They held each others hands and Zuko thought, that his hands fit perfectly into Sokkas. It was like they were meant for each other.

" _We say we're friends,_ " Zuko sang, holding his hands up, while Sokka was behind him, reaching for them.

" _We play pretend,"_ Sokka sang softly and grabbed Zukos hands and wrapped his arms around Zuko.

" _You're more to me,_ " Zuko sang softly, closing his eyes, enjoying Sokkas warm embrace.

" _We create_ ...," Sokka trailed off and let Zuko twirl out of the embrace.

" _They perfect harmony,_ " Zuko sang, but frowned when he twirled into Jets arms, holding his hands.

"Wow, we naild that. Thanks, partner," Jet grinned in excitement, while Zuko just starred at him, dumbfounded.

"Yeah," he breathed out and looked at the mirror confused.

What just happened, wasn't real. That was all in his head. _Oh no._

The worst thing though, was that he longed for Sokka. He wanted it to be real. 

"Uhm. That was great," Zuko mumbled and looked back at Jet, still confused and the school bell rang.

He felt his heart sink and a sadness was building inside of him. 

"I gotta get going," he muttered, grabbing his hair and pushing it back frustrated and walked past Jet, who looked confused and concerened.

***

The three ghosts were in the studio, playing on their insturments, rehearsing for tonight.

"Look, we add the echoes during the chorus, then when Zuko comes in with the melody, it's gonna sound perfect," Sokka grinned and Haru and Suki just smiled at each other with raised eyebrows.

They heard a thud outside and they saw Yue looking through the window of the door, but when she realized that she was caught, she scrambled away from the window.

"Again? What's that all about?" Haru asked confused.

"I don't know," Suki mumbled, still looking at the window.

She stood up and beamed herself outside. She stood in front of Yue, who wanted to skate away, but flinched, when she saw Suki.

"What's your problem?" Suki asked confused and a little bit angry. "It's like you're tracking me down just so you can keep running away."

Yue looked guilty, not once looking into Sukis eyes. "I wish I could explain, Suki, but I can't."

She wanted to leave, but Suki shook her head, expression softening, when she saw Yues distressed expression. "Wait. That's not good enough. I mean you've been acting weird ever since Long Feng's club. You know, I thought we are having fun together."

But Yue just shook her head and Sukis heart clenched in her chest. "We never should've met," Yue whispered.

It was like a punch in her gut. "Wow, that hurts."

"Hey, I'm sorry, Suki. I really am. You are a great girl. ... I gotta go," she said and left ,and Suki felt like, she took her heart with her.

***

Zuko was in the music room, playing on the piano the melody of the song he sang with Sokka, _in his daydream,_ smiling to himself.

"There you are!" Mai yelled and walked into the room, Zuko flinched and stopped playing, looking up at his friend. "I've been looking all over for you. Why'd you run out of dance class so fast?"

"Sorry. I just needed some air. It was a little intense in there," Zuko said, while Mai sat down in front of him, with a smirk.

"Oh, I noticed. Dancing with a guy you've had a crush on for forever will do that to a guy."

"Yeah," Zuko breathed out with a bitter expression. "But the whole time we were dancing, ... I was thinking about Sokka."

"Seriously?" Mai frowned. "First off, called it. Second, I know you always want what you can't have, but Sokka is next-fucking-level."

Zuko sighed frustated. "I know. And now I think Jet likes me. _Jet!"_

She grinned. "He totally does."

"But me and Sokka just clicked," Zuko mumbled sadly, but then grinned slightly. "And he's so-"

"Not real," Mai interrupted sternly and Zukos smile disappeared.

He knew she was right. But he still liked Sokka and he didn't know what to do about that. It was stupid he knew, he could never be with a ghost, right?

"You can make all the music you want with Sokka, but ... he'll always be a phantom. So ... here's what we're gonna do," Mai grinned and picked up Zukos phone, typing on it. "Send Jet a nice little friendly text asking him to come to your party tonight."

She showed the text to Zuko and he already felt like this was a stupid idea. He frowned at the text. "I usually don't use smiley faces."

"You do now. I'm not gonna let you get your heart broken. And trust me. Tonight, you're performing with Sokka, so the key is avoiding those big, beautiful, ... dead eyes."

"You're very pushy today," Zuko said narrowing his eyes at her.

"You're welcome."

***

Sokka frowned at Suki, while she played the drums. She was agressively punching on them and each time, Sokka flinched. Sokka and Haru exchanged a look and stopped playing, but Suki continued to play. She looked up to the boys and finally stopped.

Sokka swallowed. "Suki, you all right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, why?" she asked with furrowed eyebrows.

Sokka just looked at her, mouth open, but no words coming out and he looked at Haru for help.

"I know it's tough, Suki. People say you never forget your first ghost. Maybe that's true. But ... I'm sure there will be others."

"Yeah. Thanks, Haru," her expression softened and she looked down at her drums sticks.

Sokka nodded, leaning on the drum set. “And, Suki, you're a great drummer and a great girl, ok? I wouldn't let all that stuff get in between you and what you love."

"I don't know, man. Sometimes a little fire can make things better on stage," Haru grinned at Sokka. "Like you and Zuko."

"Uhm, wha ...," Sokka sputtered flustered, a small blush building on his cheeks. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Haru chuckled and Suki started smiling again.

"Come on. Everyone can see the way you look at him when you sing. You guys ooze chemistry," Haru said with a hand gesture.

"You should never say 'ooze' again," Suki said to Haru, weirded out and then looked at Sokka knowingly. "but, yeah, I agree."

Sokka frowned and put his guitar away, leaning it on the wall. "Ok, no. I have chemistry with everyone that i sing with."

They just starred at him, smiling at him in disbelief.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ycA8QDswpE>

"Serouisly, watch," Sokka said and starred at Haru, looking into his eyes, walking slowly towards him. " _I believe, I believe that we're just one dream,_ " his voice becoming more gentle. " _Away from who we're meant to be,_ " Sokka was inches away from Haru, grabbing his neck, pulling him closer. Harus eyes widened, looking Sokka straight into his eyes. " _That we're standing on the edge of ... Great._ "

Suki laughed. "Wow. I see chemistry," she grinned, while the two boys still looked at each other.

Haru nodded his heartbeat pounding in his ears and swallowed hard. "That was pretty hot."

Sokka kissed his index and middle finger and pressed them on Harus lips, winking at him.

Haru cleared his throat, he was blushing hard. "Girls. Am I right?" he laughed awkwardly.

"Yeah," Suki said grinning.

"No," Sokka laughed.

They grabbed their instruments and started to play again.

***

Jet was looking at the people around him, waiting for Zukos performance. The backyard was big, and it was full of people right now. He saw Iroh putting up a camera and then sighed, when he saw Ty Lee walking towards him. 

"Hey," she said and Jet frowned at her.

"What are you doing here?"

"Zuko is one of my oldest friends. I'm sure he just forgot to invite me."

Jet rolled his eyes. "Look, we're not getting back together, Ty Lee."

Ty Lee scoffed and looked at him, grinning. "I've heard that before. Something doesn't add up about those holograms. I wouldn't trust him ... if I were you."

Jet looked at her confused, but before he could response, Mai walked out onto the 'stage' and talked into the microphone, announcing Zuko, while Azula and one of her friends opened the garage door.

Zuko walked out and sat in front of the piano, while the people were cheering. 

"Thanks for coming," he smiled and started playing.

_<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pp07jgbPHU> _

_"We all got a second act inside of us,_ " Zuko sang and the band appeared beside him.

He stood up, taking the microphone with him, smiling at the three, with sparkling eyes, while the crowd went wild.

" _Something big, something crazy, Our best is yet unknown,_ " Zuko sang and walked towards Haru, while he played on the bass grinning up at Zuko.

Zuko turned to Suki, singing at her. Suki smiled at him brightly, nodding at the melody. 

" _Cause we're standing on the edge of great,"_ Zuko sang and turned immediately towards the crowd ignoring Sokka. 

Sokka frowned a little, looking confused at Zuko, because he always came towards him.

He looked at him at the coner of his eyes, still confused, did he do something wrong?

" _We all make mistakes, But they're just stepping stones, To take us where we wanna go, It's never straight, no,_ " Sokka sang and looked at Zuko, nodding his head towards him, telling him to come towards him, but Zukos eyes widened and he looked away, ignoring Sokka again.

 _"Sometimes we gotta lean, lean on someone else,_ " they both sang and Sokkas frown deepened, his heart sinking. He was confused, because Zuko didn't paid attention to him and it hurt Sokka.

Haru seemed to notice, because he smiled at Sokka and walked towards him, playing beside him, while both Sokka and Zuko sang together. Zuko walked to the audience singing to them, grabbing Mais hand, smiling at her. 

_"Shout, shout, Come on and let it out, out,_ " they both sang together, while Zuko climbed on the piano, to sit on it. 

_"What doesn't kill you makes you feel alive,"_ Zuko sang and standing up a little, to kneel on the Piano.

" _Oh, I believe,"_ Zuko sang his solo, and Sokka took the opportunity to walk towards Zuko, while he played his guitar solo. 

Sokka leaned his back on the piano, but never stopped starring into Zukos eyes, while Zuko smiled down at Sokka, scrunching his nose and he felt his heart skip a beat. _He looked adorable_ , Sokka thought. This was how it was supposed to be, but when his part was over he stood up on the piano and Sokka walked back to his spot.

Zuko sat back down in front of the piano, singing the last part alone, that’s what he thought anyways. Sokka walked beside him, leaning down and sang with Zuko into the microphone, while the other two ghosts were already gone. Zuko looked surprised but then started to smile softly at the other boy, who was just inches away from him.

 _"Running from the past, Tripping on the now, What is lost can be found, It's obvious,"_ both Sokka and Zuko sang, while they starred into each others eyes, both smiling softly. 

Sokkas eyes dropped down to Zukos lips for a second and Zuko wanted to lean forward, but the blue eyed boy disappeared and the crowd started to cheered, ripping Zuko out of his thoughts.

***

"I can't say this enough, that was incredible," Mai said and grabbed another slice of the pizza in front of them.

The people already left and Zuko was exhausted, his mind still wandering to Sokka and their moment earlier by the piano.

Mai leaned towards him voice low. "But epic fail on that eye contact thing."

Zuko laughed, blushing a little.

"So how do you do those holograms?" Azula asked and starred at Zuko.

"Oh, don't try to understand it, Azula. I don't," his uncle saved him.

"That's because you are old," she muttered.

Iroh chuckled humorless. "Funny. I'd send you to your room, but then who's gonna clean up this mess?"

"Don't poke the bear," Zuko smirked at Azula and she scoffed and walked away, rolling her eyes at them.

"So what are the guys doing right now?" Iroh asked and Zukos eyes went wide.

"Hanging out, I guess," he stumbled out, scratching his neck. "You know, or whatever you do when you're from where they're from. Hey, so what cameras did you use out there," Zuko said, trying to change the topic and it worked. 

Zuko grinned and Mai patted his shoulder, smirking, trying to look interested at Zukos uncle, while he talked about some cameras.

***

Sokka, Suki and Haru were playing with a basketball.

Haru took the ball looking at his friends. "Feels like we should be celebrating or something. What do you guys wanna do?"

He wanted to throw the ball at Sokka, but in that moment, a painful jolt went through their bodys and all three groaned in pain, holding their stomachs.

"Not that," Suki breathed out with a pained expression.

"That wasn't like the other ones. It's getting worse," Sokka gasped in pain and he looked frightened to his friends. 

"Why is this happening to us?" Haru asked frustrated.

"It's because you guys are in serious trouble," someone said and and three looked to Yue, who was looking at them sadly.

They looked confused towards her, Sokka still tried to catch his breath and straighten up.

"Yue?" Suki said with a frown.

"We need to talk."

***

They were walking through the streets of Hollywood, while Yue explained everything. And Sokka was pissed. 

"All these jolts that we're feeling is because Long Feng put his stamp on us?" Sokka asked in disbelief.

"He is threatened by you. He wants you under his control. I mean, you're the only ghosts that can be visible to lifers without his help."

The three stopped and Yue turned around to look at them, Suki looked furious. "And you let him do this to us?"

"I can't stop him;" Yue yelled in frustration. "He owns my soul. All right? He owns everybodys soul at that club. If he even knew I was here talking to you, he ..." Yue sighed defeated and there was fear in her eyes. "He would destroy me."

Suki looked at Yue with a sad expression not quite believing what she heard. That was wrong, that was so wrong. Nobody should own the soul of someone else. She wanted to kill Long Feng.

"So if we don't join his club," Haru muttered with furrowed eyebrows. "The weird power outage thing countinues until there's no power left at all?"

"Yes," Yue breathed out, closing her eyes.

"What exactly happens when the power goes out?" Haru asked afraid, looking at Sokka who had a similar expression on his face.

"That's ... that's it. You are done," Yue said looking at each of them, guilt eating her up.

"Uh-huh. Yeah. And what exactly do you mean by 'we're done'?" Haru asked with wide eyes.

"You just ... You don't exist ... anymore. Not anywhere."

"What?" Suki gasped, eyes wide.

"So we have no choice?" Sokka asked angrily with a frown. "We have to say goodbye to Zuko, give up everything that we've built together, and work for Long Feng?"

Yue sighed and Sokka felt his heart break, tears welling up in his eyes. He didn’t want to leave yet, not when everything seemed ok for a second. He didn’t want to leave Zuko."That's some club you guys got going on."

"But there is another option. That's why I'm here," she said with pleadings eyes.

"Another option?" Suki scoffed, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Just please hear me out. All right. If you guys could figure out what your unfinished business is, you do it in time, you could cross over and be free from all of this."

"Ok. So what's our unfinished business?" Sokka asked, looking at Yue.

"I don't know, but since you all died at the same time, it might be something you need to do together," she said.

"Why should we listen to a word you say?" Suki asked with a stern expression.

Yue froze and looked up at Suki with pain in her eyes. "Because I care about you, Suki."

Suki swallowed the lump in her throat, not knowing what to say.

"And I hate that I brought you ... and your friends into this mess. I uh ... I can't be away much longer. I'm so sorry. ... For everything," she said with tears in her eyes and then she was gone.

Suki walked slowly in front of the two boys, with a guilty expression. "This is all my fault. I ... I met Yue. Yue introduced us to Long Feng, and now ... now we're screwed."

Sokka shook his head, looking at Suki. "We all wanted to see Long Feng."

"We have to tell Zuko," Haru mumbled. 

"No, we can't do that," Sokka shook his head immediately, he couldn't tell him, not now. "This just means more loss in his life. But if we don't want Long Feng to own our souls, we have to figure out what our unfinished business is."

"Yeah, man. And how are we supposed to do that? There was so much we wanted to do," Suki said, pain seeking through her voice and Sokka tried hard not to cry. 

He looked behind Suki and his eyes lingered on the name of the building.

"What is it?" Suki asked confused.

"But the night we died, there was one thing we all wanted to do together," Sokka said, never letting the building out of his sight and his friends looked towards it.

"Play at the _Orpheum?"_ Haru asked with big eyes.

"Getting that gig was literally impossible," Suki muttered under her breath. "Even after people knew who we were, we had to hustle, call in every favor we had. It took us years," she said, but arched in pain, when again, a jolt of pain went through her body. 

All three groaned and coughed, gasping for air. 

"We don't have years," Sokka said afraid, still looking at the _Orpheum._


End file.
